Darkness
by destiny's charm
Summary: Watching it all happen is quite amusing. Who would have thought that HE, of all persons, would end up this way?
1. Darkness

_First of all, I don't own the legend of Zelda. I can keep wishing though…_

_Anyway, this is something I wrote quite a while back and I'm wondering whether I should continue it or not…..and personally I think the chance is quite high that I will_

_Leaving a review would be nice though. It's that purple button at the end of the page, you know, the cute looking one ?_

_Well, enjoy the darkness_

**Darkness**

Every interesting story has to have a villain, but sometimes it's not as black and white. Sometimes it's grey. A hero can be a villain, a villain a hero. Who is to judge? No one ever looks at things from the villain's point of view....

And why should they? A villain is a villain. The bad guy...But in war, there are no heroes nor villains... Just people, broken by rage, hatred, fear and hurt.

What if a hero goes insane, a princess get pregnant from a loony and the villain turns out to be a good guy?

This couldn't be happening to him, it was outrageous. He was the hero of time, heh, according to some people...If they could only see him now.

Darkness surrounded him, the once great knight in shiny armour, hidden in the darkest pit of the castle, shut of from the people he should be protected. But he no longer provided protection, no...they were being protected from him.

iand you should just have killed them all, you could have gotten away with it i He started screaming to shut the voice in his head up, but it wasn't working. Outside his door he could hear the guards becoming restless, chuckling, poking each other while making fun of him. He could clearly hear one say: he's at it again...hahah

He moved his hands up his ears trying to shut them out, put his hands up his now dirty hair, while kneeling down. He had never been in such agony before...

They locked him up, after all he had done for them, and after all he had gone through for them....Even she had locked him away. Again he screamed out in agony, not able to stop his thought pattern.

He knew he couldn't blame him; he would have done so himself if it was another person. but you're not just some person the little voice in his head said. Breathing down deep, he managed to calm himself down enough to refrain from screaming out yet again.

So this was insanity....

It scared him....For the line between good and evil had been so easily breached, at least, according to them...But what was he supposed to do? He couldn't just walk away after all he had learned? Some pathetic hero he was. In the end, he couldn't even safe himself from falling down this pit of despair, let alone safe anyone else.

Hours slipped past him, and he had long lost count. Not that it mattered anymore; there was nothing left in this world for him to do. No meetings, no one to save, no training, nothing...Just darkness...

Trying to fall asleep had proven to be futile, his mind kept drifting back to her. She made you like this, she's the enemy the voice screamed at him, but he knew she was not. She cared for him...at least, he thought she did. Otherwise they would have executed him by now. Would she come to visit him again? He doubted it, what good would it do to visit an insane person?

Outside his door he heard the guards sit up straighter and small delicate footsteps echoed through his room again. iSo she's here again, watching you like her own perverted sick experiment He managed to ignore it for now. In a futile attempt to look presentable he ran his fingers through his hair, but that wouldn't do him any good...

Through the small window in the door he could see her eyes, staring into his, looking for answers. Why.....Why did you do what you did? Fierce blue eyes returned her questioned stare; he at least hadn't lost that alongside with his mind. He could always hear her whisper the unspoken question, the forbidden one...

He half mindedly listened while she babbled about the weather, small politics but he cut her off after 10 minutes. Zelda.....He softly said, Why are you here? Here...with me.....

You don't belong here, and you're not just here to talk about the weather....Why are you really here? Not trusting her own ears she took quite some time to think up a response. It had been months since he last talked to her, other then screaming seemingly random noises just to block her off...

You're back was all she could utter, but before she could properly process what just happened he spoke up again. I never was gone....I just lost control...

I know, she said while holding the candle a bit higher, the light shining in his eyes. I know for I've been watching you regain control all along....


	2. twilight

He knew that she left him alone after that. He wondered why though. It seemed like she had waited quite a while to talk to him after al…He started chuckling again, why did it even bother him? It's not like she meant anything to him, like she could possibly care about him. He was sure he had hurt her way too much for that.

Stretching his muscles, he stood up and walked around his small cell for a bit. It felt as if he hadn't walked in weeks , which might have actually been the case, for he had long since lost track of the time he spent in his cell.

He wanted someone to talk to. The though itself surprised him. After a while though, it felt as if he NEEDED someone to talk to, if he stayed like this here, in the boring cell, he would certainly turn mad, well madder then he already was. But that would just be his luck all over again, to regain his sanity, only to lose it the next moment, because of the precautions they took for him.

And then he heard it again, the slight tapping against the stones. His mind soared, she was coming back, she wasn't leaving him here to rot after all. And then he got the surprise of his life. Instead of just opening the small window so that she could talk to him, she opened the door, and before he knew it, she was standing there, in front of him, all alone. The darker side of his mind, still not forgotten, told him that this was his change, his only change to get revenge on her. But right now, revenge was shoved in the back of his mind. After all, he finally had someone to talk to. Besides, she would probably take him down in the blink of an eye, his body felt as if he hadn't been training or either properly for a couple of months.

At first, she just stood there awkwardly, candle in hand, cape barely hiding her bright smile. Why was she smiling? His mind couldn't think up a logical explanation, she was in a dark room standing in front of a deadly, well not so deadly right now he thought bitterly, mad man. In front of her lost champion. And then she, she walked over to him and pulled him in for a hug. The dark side screamed to push her away but he didn't, it felt as if he didn't have the strength to it, but a small part of him quite liked the embrace, although he would swear till his death that he didn't like it. He awkwardly put his arms around her, not quite knowing if this was what she was expecting of him, or why she was hugging him at all.

Drawing back, she giggled before telling him that she would send someone down here to get him cleaned up, since he smelled like a skullkid. Stunned but also quite offended, he sniffed under his armpit….And immediately got what she meant. Din, he smelled awful. That she could stand to be near him at all. And why hadn't he noticed this before?

His expression probably told her all she needed to know, because she sat down, on his make shift bed, and told him that it was ok, that she was glad that he was back, even if he smelled bad. And he laughed at that, not a chuckle or a sarcastic one, but a genuine one. And unknown to him, it made him glow.

She just smiled at him, and waited, waited for him to start talking. It was weird, he had desperately longed for someone to talk to, and now that she was there, he didn't know what to discuss. As if his mind was blank, which was quite a nice feeling actually. He didn't mind that one at all. So he said down next to her, and said: Hey, how have you been?

And from that on, they started a conversation, one so long that it probably lasted a couple of hours. Link knew it must have been hours, for someone came to his cell to inform the princess that her father was waiting for her in the dining room. Apparently she had kept everyone waiting. She blushed at that, straightened her skirts, and made to leave the cell, but he grabbed her arm before she could.

"Don't leave me….I…."

"I'll come back after dinner, I promise"

As an after thought she added: "but in the mean time, I'll send someone down here to get you cleaned up, and get someone to bring you a proper meal. You smell like a skullkid and you surely look like one "

He could muster an annoyed "Hey" and then she was gone, leaving him alone in his darkness. AGAIN.

Slowly, day by day, Zelda watched Link win over the last remnants of his darkness. She knew that she shouldn't be here that much as she was, that it wasn't proper for a princess to care so much about a lowly peasant, much less an insane one, but she couldn't care less. They didn't know how much she needed him.

The past few months, Zelda had been so lonely. She was latterly locked inside the castle (a war was raging after all), and her best friend was locked down in a dark cell, screaming dark insanities whenever he was awake. So she took to visiting him, even if all he did was scream at her, at least then, she wasn't alone.

Her father had been pressing her to make a decision on what to do with Link. Zelda couldn't and wouldn't give up hope that he would come back from the darkness, but the physicians weren't that convinced. They had given up all hope when he tried to strange one of them when they were treating him. Oh well, Zelda couldn't exactly blame Link, after all, she was sane, or close enough, and they annoyed the hell out of her. She couldn't only imagine what they would do to an insane Link.

The worst part of all, Zelda felt guilty. More guilty then everyone besides Zelda could possibly ever feel. It was her fault that he lost his sanity. He did it for her; everything he did was for her. That might seem slightly disturbing to most people, but they weren't most people. Link and Zelda both had dealed with more horrifying scenes in their short lives then most elderly people, so people weren't that surprised when Link lost his mind. But they didn't know the truth. They never had, and probably never would. It would shock their world beyond believe.

Zelda herself could barely believe it, and SHE had the triforce of wisdom. It's not an everyday event that your worst becomes the savior of the very world he once tried to destroy.

Worse even. If she was Link, she would have probably been suffering the same fate. She didn't want to know what it would have done to her, to find out that the guy who tried to kill you on multiple occasions actually is your dad. And that he tried to do so to fulfil his own destiny.

She couldn't believe that the Goddesses could be so cruel


	3. Prelude

Darkness made room for dawn, landscapes changed from Sandy deserts to the lush green fields of her motherland. She didn't take the time to admire any of those changes, she didn't have the time to. She just kept running as fast as her feet would carry her. Occasionally, she dared to look past her shoulder to see if they were chasing her still, and to her dismay, they were. Cradling her baby a bit closer, she focused on the road in front of her, and tripped….

She managed to get up fast enough but they had already caught up with her. There was no way she could get away from them unharmed, from those who shared the same blood as her, but didn't share her opinion, and she knew that she could, would die by those hands, and partially she embraced that, but she could not let them get to her baby first." How ironic" She thought, "to be ended by the very people you tried to help. Please let the goddesses forgive you your foolishness." Without any doubts left in her she turned and, mustering all the strength left in her frail form, she dashed away again, but she didn't get far. Just three seconds after she resumed her flight, she was hit by an arrow, blood was staining her Gerudo outfit dark red…

Her sight began to blur and she was losing speed rapidly. They would catch up with her eventually, she was bleeding too much to escape death, and she was leaving a trial, but she might manage to reach someone else before any of that would happen. Her hope was the only thing that kept her going, the hope for a better world , her hope for the small child in her arms, the reason she was there in the first place, the only reason.

"No, not the only reason" she corrected herself." You're in this position because of him as well……If he wasn't the" She willed herself to stop at that, she didn't have the time for thoughts like that.

She refused let them take away the Gerudo tribes only hope. The Hylians only hope.

She refused to let her people take away the light of the world, the hope for a united Hyrule.

Looking around her, she noticed that she was completely lost. Her sight was already darkening and she crawled toward the only thing she could still see, a wooden bridge.

And then darkness overwhelmed her….

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It felt as if someone was shaking her, saying things to her that she couldn't comprehend. Fearing that beasts had come to feast on her and her son, she screamed and tried to move away from the unknown offender, only to find that she could not. Her limbs refused to obey her and she had already started to panic when the creature finally said something she could understand.

"You're dying……..Yet something is keeping you here………The trees tell me that it has something to do with the bundle you're holding…..Here, let the trees give you strength"

She felt something glow and then, some of her strength returned to her. It wasn't enough to save her though; both knew that, the strange creature and her. She opened her eyes to see a green haired child with a fairy in front of her, and suddenly everything became clear her.

Taking some of the cloths away from the bundle, she revealed her son to the strange girl. "Please take him….I…..I'm no longer able to protect him……the…the fate of the world…….depends on…….him……

The girl took her baby from her when her arms started to shake. She didn't have much time left.

……his name……is Link……He'll……He'll be…… the Link to…..a

Her strength lasted her just long enough to say what was needed, and when it left her, she just felt strangely content, safe in the embrace of an unknown stranger who was going to take care of her son. Her only regret was not being there for him, Link, when he grew up. But her last thoughts weren't just for him. No, her last thought in this world was for Gannondorf, her beloved, no matter how tainted he had become by the rituals forced on him by Twin rova.

In her last prayer to the goddesses of this broken world, she prayed that what she had seen wouldn't become reality. That, by doing what she did, it all could be avoided. That the two persons she held most dear in the world wouldn't have to face each other.

Her consciousness left her for the final time when she was lying on the floor of an unknown forest, cold, alone, and having done what made that thing possible that she tried to prevent all along.

The goddesses have a cruel sense of humour sometimes…..

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Saria looked at the small child lying in her arms. The boy had blond hair, and the bluest eyes she had ever seen. Feeling sorry for the young child, she hugged him closer before walking back to the forest.

The Deku tree was calling her, but in her heart, the girl had already made up her mind. She wasn't going to abandon this child in any way.

The moment that the now dead women had touched her, she saw his future, his pain, his loneliness and everything he had to do. He needed her; he needed the one thing most would refuse him.

He needed love, for being loved was the one thing that didn't come naturally to him like anything else.

In her mind, he was the link between her and the forest, the only thing keeping her there.

The only thing needing her there. And for him, she would ignore the calling of the trees a bit longer.

He was hope, and prove that the goddesses had been listening to her. TO her, he was the prelude of her new day.

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_A/n A bit of a confusing chapter, I know. _

_First of all, the trees are calling Saria, they want her to awaken as the new forest sage. This chapter also explains why she goes to the lost woods once Link leaves, he no longer needs her._

_Secondly, the she in this chapter, is Link's mother. She's on the run for Hylian soldiers._

_A civil war is raging on the once peaceful lands of Hyrule (it's the same one as in the original story, just with my take on it)_

_Anyway, I hope I didn't disappoint the people who have read this story so far. I've been too busy to update, so this chapter is a bit scatterbrained as the ideas didn't stop coming, but I didn't have time to work them out properly_

_Hope you liked it though_

_~~ Destiny's charm ~~_


	4. Moonlight

In all her naivety, the young kokiri girl had mistaken her shallow breathing and slow pulse as signs of her demise. Lying on the cold floor, she was forced to hear the girl's rapid footsteps carry away the one thing that had kept her going.

And then she heard her. She knew that it was her who had followed her, and she knew exactly why, in fact, she understood why. Barely mustering up the strength to raise her head, she looking in the face of the intruder, who was cleaning down beside her, knife drawn.

She didn't struggle when the cold blade entered her chest. She embraced the nothingness that would soon enter her, as she embraced her attacker. Warm tears left her intruders eyes, who didn't have the strength to look away from her dying form.

The last thing she heard was "I'm so sorry, but in the end, he was supposed to be mine"

She understood, she couldn't find it in her heart to blame her, her attacker, her best friend.

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People starting questioning the goddesses decision the moment Nabooru awakened as the Spirit sage. After all, why on earth would they make her the spirit sage? She wasn't qualified in any way, hadn't experienced any form of loss.

If only they knew…..

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The moment she met him, she was spent. He was so different from everything she had ever seen before. Sure, she had seen her fair share of man, but not one of them looked like him, could compare to him, that is, before he participated in the rituals…

The first time she met him, she had been 4. He had snuck out at night, leaving the protecting, suffocating, safety of his home. If she remembered correctly, he had been 8 at that time.

His life had already been planned for him. They decided who he got to meet, who he got to call his friends, who taught him and such. They decided when he would be doing what exactly, even his bathroom breaks were planned.

She just assumed it was normal at the time, after all, this was the first male Gerudo born into their tribe after 100 years. So when she met him, she was surprised to see that he looked like a male version of herself, not the mythical creature she imagined him to be.

Yes sure, she had seen males before, Gerudo females tend to get boyfriends in Hyrule Castle town, only to ditch them once they were pregnant of them. Her father had been one of them. They looked different from Gannondorf though. They weren't as broad, as slim, as roughly handsome, no they looked more like woman compared to him.

By change they met each other.

Her mother wasn't important enough in their society to have her daughter meet the Gerudo king (well future one at the time). And she had snuck out as well, not being able to sleep because the heat kept her awake.

They talked for hours that night, and when it ended, they promised each other to keep visiting each other.

For him, she was refreshing, so different from all the other people he had been forced to meet. She still was free, and his only source to the outside world, his only change of a real, genuine friendship.

For her, he was her only change to get a glimpse of the life not laid out for her, that of royalty.

She could still remember her innocent dreams in which he came to sweep her from her feet and married her, despite of what everybody thought.

It could have happened, she was sure of it

And then, Ming came to Gerudo Valley.

Gannondorf had abandoned her, he had to finish his training in Termina, with the Gerudo tribe that lived there. She hadn't seen him in two months, and she was really missing her best friend.

Loneliness was what brought them together. Ripped away from her friends, her relatives, Ming felt isolated from the world she had known since her birth. Everything was weird and exotic to her, and she had never felt so alone.

Nabooru, who was equally lonely, took pity on her when she saw a bunch of kids pester the newly arrived Hyrulian girl. She knew from Gannondorf that a Hylian family was going to settle down here, to spy on them for their king, as he had put it. Knowing that, she handled Ming with caution at first.

But her appearance and character quickly unfroze Naboorus hard. Blond hair, long and straight, lined a heart shaped face, in which two of the bluest eyes she had ever seen, shone.

So different from her own, she was mesmerised by it.

Her character was exactly as fierce as Nabooru's , that was probably the reason why Nabooru liked Ming as much as she did. Finally, she had found someone who understood her.

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The two had been best friends for over 4 years when Gannondorf came back. Finally both Gannondorf and Nabooru had reached an age suitable for marriage, and she was sure Gannon was going to ask her in a few days.

But he met Ming as well, and when she saw the two of them together, Nabooru knew she didn't have a single change.

No matter how much she cared for both of them, it still hurt so much. So much that it would ultimately decide their tragic fate…..

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The day before Nabooru turned 17, Ming and Gannondorf wed each other. Nabooru hadn't wanted to go to the wedding, but something made her feel obligated to Ming. She saw her best friend marry the man SHE loved, the man that never would be hers.

That day, she saw her dreams shatter. And she started planning her revenge.

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Even though she had wanted her revenge for so long, she couldn't help but cry as she held Ming's lifeless body close to her. Everything was her fault……

After crying for what felt like hours, Nabooru dried her tears. She was going to find link, the child of the two people she loved the most in the entire world, even if it was the last thing she was going to do.

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Looking outside, from the temple onto the desert, Nabooru heard the chiming sound of a lantern being moved.

At least Ming was still watching over her and her son.

_A/N_

_And now you know a bit more about their past._

_Review if I fooled you the other chapter, review if you thought that the Hylians had killed Ming ;)_

_Of course, if you feel the need to review even if I didn't fool you, I'm not stopping you _

_~~destiny's charm~~_


	5. Alone, he went

**Alone, he went.**

Even though he made steady progress with his physicians, the memories of that day continued to haunt him, memories of the day on which HIS darkness completely held him, Link, within its grasp.

The mask had had powers that his mind could not comprehend.

But blaming it all on the mask would not help his cause, no.

IF he wanted to regain what he had lost, he would first have to acknowledge that he had in fact lost it. That, in the end there was no one else to blame then himself.

No matter how many excuses he could think of, it was him who had let it slip after all…\

He could still remember everything about his many quests, yet his days of darkness remained just that. Pure darkness, and he thanked his mind for it.

Oh how he longed for that ignorant state of bliss..

Every time Zelda visited him, he was reminded why he had to remember. For her, for them, for everything they had.

And he wouldn't back down this time.

After all he had gone through, he ended up the same way as he had started. Alone, unwanted, with a past better left unspoken. There was one change however.

In the begin, he had her, Saria, and a place to call his home. Now, he had none of that.

The boy travelled from town to town, country to country, fighting evil as he went.

But they never noticed him, not truly. The people he saved never noticed that under his hard and rough exterior, there still was a young boy, no matter how scarred he may have been. Some saw him as a legendary hero, some saw him as a monster. How could a child his age possibly withstand all he had gone through? He must have sold his soul to the deil.

The more miles he travelled, the more monsters he fought, the less people saw him as he was. Instead, they saw a monster, and for that, he couldn't blame them.

Whenever he entered a town, people would barricade their doors, keeping their children huddled close to them. Couldn't they see that he longed for someone that loved him, cared about him in the same way those people cared for their children?

And the whole way, the deity mask was poisoning his mind with thoughts of death and destruction. "He could make them pay for their foolishness." it whispered.

The voice in his head was harder to ignore with every mile he walked, every monster he fought, every town he visited.

And after 7 long years, he finally was allowed to return home, just as destiny was about to let him meet his doom.

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By the time he reached Hyrule, darkness had long since tainted his judging ability. As he walked through the country he had saved, his country, he saw that seven years of peace hadn't gone unexploited. New buildings and faces greeted him as he made his way forwards his unlikely destination.

Gerudo desert.

That very place had haunted his dreams ever since Princess Zelda had sent him back in time. He saw placed and faces there he was sure he hadn't seen through his own eyes. His curiosity got the best of him, he had to visit it again…It didn't help that it felt as if he was walking towards his impending doom though…

None the less, he figured out a plan to get into Gerudo Valley. So far, his brain had come up with two solutions :

Getting it down with a female Gerudo.

Sneaking in at night.

Somehow, option A didn't seem as attractive as it should have been, perhaps it was his possible death after the deed that made it seem that way. He didn't like option B either, but he simply didn't have any other options.

So Link hid, waiting for nighttime to come.

Luckilky for him, it was a cloudy night, hardly any moonlight shone through the darkness, hiding Link like a thick cloak. He managed to make his way past most of the guards, till he stumbled on another problem…

How on earth was he going to open the gate to the dessert without alerting someone of his presence?

He was already cursing himself and his luck when an idea struck him. He was going to force them to open the gate.

So he set their fortress ablaze….

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Within minutes, every Gerudo had fled and Link could safely pass the gate to the dessert. The mask told him not to feel sorry for setting their fortress ablaze. After all, they wore a bunch of stealing, murdering, dangerous females. The world would cheer if they were gone…

And then he saw her. Pale moonlight shone through her, showing Link that what he was seeing was no longer alive. It was a female his age, looking like a female version of himself.

Just paler.

Just as fast as he had seen her, she vanished.

With the help of the poe, he made his way to the Spirit temple, sitting down near the small oasis, only to find that he wasn't alone…..

_A/n sorry, the first time I posted it, it was way too short and full of stupid mistakes…Hopefully, I fixed most of them......._


	6. The beginning

"So you finally decided to come after all?"

She turned to face him, her face hidden by the dancing shadows created by the burning fortress. Before him stood Nabooru, the proud and fierce leader of the Gerudo, but most importantly, the mighty Spirit Sage.

"Don't believe your pitiful illusions; I did not come to see you"

Link smirked when he saw hurt flicker over her face, no matter how briefly.

"You've changed…"She said, as if stating a plain fact, while she walked closer to him, too close for Link's comfort.

"It's a pity that it's not for the better though……What happened to you kid? Last time I saw you when you were 17, you were a Gannon beating, super sexy saving Hyrule machine....Have you even been eating well? You look as if you've lost a couple of pounds, and I'm not talking about puppy fat…"

"How dare you try to smother me with your unwanted affections…Who do you think you are, woman? You're not my mother"

Nabooru flinched at that. If only he knew what she had wanted to tell him for quite a while now. But Link wasn't done yet, he was just getting started.

"How would you feel if you saved thousands upon thousands of people, risk you're life, the only thing you have left, a million times for the likes of those who at the end of the day turn away from you in disdain? How would you feel if you continuously go through so much pain and suffering that you wouldn't have wished it upon your worst enemy? Go through hell and back every day? To have people making assumptions about you without even knowing you? "

"Sheez kiddo, calm down. I didn't ask for your whole life story….Listen up kid, we don't have a lot of time, and I'm only going to tell you what you have to know once, so you'd better pay attention. Do you honestly think that you're the only one who feels alone all the time? Look at princess Zelda; she's jammed up into that pretty little castle of her, wearing those pretty little dresses, having her whole life planned out. Does anyone care for her instead of her title? And what about me? Do you honestly think people understand why I, of all people, am the Spirit Sage?"

She sat down and pulled a very reluctant Link with her. He responded to that with a small growl but continued to listen anyway.

"Nobody ever understood. It's been a long time since everyone actually remembered what this place was truly for. See that plateau over there? "

She pointed to a small stone plateau on a sort of stone tower.

"It used to be the place that connected our world with theirs, the world of the dead. They say that the first Spirit Sage used her powers given to her by the goddesses to break the link, thus saving us from a premature death. That very Sage passed down her powers shortly after, and travelled through the dessert, her purpose unknown. Her apprentice, who received her powers, took the role of the Spirit Sage upon her. Along with her powers came the ability to see the dead when they crossed the border between our world and theirs. For centuries, they've served as the guides to appoint a new Spirit Sage, after the current one passed away. The apprentice's bloodline became thin and impure and within a few centuries, her descendants no longer had the ability to see the ghosts, or poes as you call them.

You might think, why is she telling me all of this? It serves a purpose.

The altar and the temple had long since been banned from my peoples mind. There is something you need to know about us Gerudo though. We're not just one tribe. There are multiple, but there shall remain only one man.

My mom belonged to a different tribe of Gerudo, the Terminian branch. She found a Hylian boyfriend and followed him to Hyrule. Once he dumped her, she came here, not being able to bear the shame she would receive is she returned to her own family. She was pregnant of his child you see, she was pregnant of me.

I was a normal child, I had my fair share of friends, did well in everything I did, yet I was never satisfied. I even knew Gannondorf well before he went nuts. I even knew your mother…but that's something that's better left in the past.

You see, I didn't always have the ability to see ghosts…..no…I was quite ordinary…That changed tragically after the events of the unification war….

Lying deadly wounded, near the river of sand, I could fee that my time was running out and darkness was surrounding me like a blanket. I had long lost my ability to feel my pain. Suddenly, I felt as if I wasn't alone anymore. With my last strengths, I opened my eyes….I saw her… Her of all people…The one I had betrayed for a man, the one who had taken away my love….The one I had killed to get my revenge…I saw your mother Link "

Faster then lighting, Link unsheathed his sword and buried its blade deep into Nabooru's exposed stomach.

Falling on her knees, Nabooru found herself in a position she had never imagined she would be. Kneeling in front of a man, a boy none the less…. Nabooru mustered up her quickly draining strength to see eye to eye with her killer, as a last act of defiance…

"You remind me so much of your father. Handsome, in a ruthlessly wild way. Untameable, strong, and yet oh so fragile. Oh if only you could see how much you look like Gan..nondorf…"

As Link walked away, leaving the dying Nabooru behind, he could still hear her whispering: "never forget that she's with you…I can …see…. Her…."

A bright light pierced the darkness surrounding the Oasis, but Link didn't notice.

Ming had finally brought her long lost friend home, away from all her worldly pain.

Using the spirit guide to safely cross the river of sand, Link watched the blackened fortress, and in some disgusting way, he felt proud.

His footsteps pierced through the nightly quietness. Surrounded by darkness, a seed of darkness was planted in his mind.

He would need the light of another to nurture said seed.

From where she stood, Ming watched him, her son, walk away. Turning on her heals, she walked back to the spirit dace. Her job as a spirit guide to the oasis would have to wait another day; she wasn't going to leave her son alone anymore….

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Something woke Rauru from his pleasant dreams. A feeling of dread washed over him, and against his normal ways, the light sage decided to check upon the seal, to lose said feeling of dread.

The moment he stumbled into the chamber, he saw that something was wrong. Instead of its normal orange glow, the pedestal was black.

And that's when he knew his worst nightmare had just been confirmed.

The seal had been broken, and Gannondorf was out, planning his own merry way to pull Hyrule in an era of darkness again.

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_A/n : I'm sorry that it took such a long time for me to update. I wasn't quite sure whether or not to post this chapter at all, but last night, I've decided, oh what the hell…_

_I'd like it very much is you'd review this chapter. I basically have my story lined out now, so it should feel a bit less abstract (or so I hope). I'm still learning a lot while writing, and reading of course. As you might have noticed, my native language isn't English, so I'm prone to make mistakes._

_I hope that that doesn't stop people from reading this story though…_

_Anyway, if I don't update before Christmas, I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year._

_~~ Destiny's charm ~~_


	7. Fallen from grace

Now that the first dice was cast (or the first sage was killed) Link knew that he had to make haste. He would have preferred to plan his revenge a bit more careful, but the circumstances changed that, and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

Inside his head, the mask was giving him instructions.

_Together we will make them pay for hurting you. We'll hurt them the way they've hurt you. But hurry, time is running out. We'll cut them, torture them, __and watch while they bleed. Nothing will get in our way…_

It was getting harder and harder to resist the mask, and even though one small part of his mind regretted what he had done to Nabooru, Link couldn't stop now. It felt as if he was balancing on a cliff, just waiting to be pushed down into the abyss waiting for him below.

So within half a day, he made it to Zora´s Fountain, ready to deal with that fishy fiancée of his. He had wanted to start with her, watch as the life slowly drained from her, watch as she realised that the man she had wanted to marry turned out to be her killer. Heh how ironic, she never would be the first in anything to him…

No one noticed him as he entered, which was quite strange, but it sure served his purpose.

_Together__ we´re unstopable…._

Within minutes, he entered the private chamber of Princess Ruto, Water Sage, Princess of the Zora. It must have been his lucky day because she was there, lying on what probably served as her bed, sleeping blissfully unaware of her oncoming doom. As quietly as he could, he locked the door and made his way to her.

And that's when she woke.

Link! You're back! What on earth are you doing here? You look like you've just been through hell and back, what's wrong? You're here to visit me right? Oh my gosh!! I have to tell Zelda, I knew you loved me the same way as I love you!!

She slowly made her way over, arms open, ready to embrace him. Link used that opportunity to end her pathetic life. He watched as she fell to the floor, mouth open, arms clutching her wound.

"Link….why???"

"I've come to end your pathetic fishy life. Feel the pain you, and your precious little Zelda along with the other sages, caused me. Think of me as you burn in hell."

He then kicked her right below her chin, forcing her on her back. He couldn't help but smile sadistically when he located her heart, and removed it within a few seconds.

She had offered him her heart, and he literally took it and ripped it apart.

Her blue blood would forever stain his hands.

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The clock was still ticking and he would have to hurry all the more. With his luck, the Hyrulian army was probably on their way to stop him, but he wouldn't be an easy pushover. No…he would take as many of them with him as he could manage.

_So many Sages to kill…So little time__…_

He barely allowed himself the time to wash her blood, Ruto's blood of his hands. It wouldn't just do, waltzing into Goron Cavern with her blood staining his hands, would it? He would be Shish Kebab before he could have even finished pronouncing that word. Not that he ever talking though, they weren't worth his time and voice….

Getting to Darunia would be a lot harder then getting to Ruto. Darunia had a lot of physical power and easily hold him in a death grip. And if he managed to end his life how would he leave said place? He couldn't just kill Darunia and continue his merry way out, no he wouldn't be able to handle all the Gorons at once. And that's when the solution hit him. He was going to blow up the whole mountain, thus ending the Fire Sage and his people.

How could he not have thought of that before? It would be so easy to warp into Death Mountains crater, drop a bomb there, and warp away….

Yes……That would safe him a lot of time….

The only thing that irked him was that warping would make his presence known to princess Zelda. And he wanted to safe her for last….

He allowed himself to think over his next steps. If he would warp to the crater and drop said bomb there, where would he warp to? Who would he pick as his next victim? It would be easier to deal with Saria first, killing her would be a piece of cake, she never would see it coming. Then again, it would also be the hardest, at least mentally. She cared for him after all…

_She knew what was going to happen to you, yet she did nothing to prevent it from happening. She must be punished as well.._

Or perhaps he would warp to Kakariko graveyard, find Impa and deal with her. He imagined that Impa would show the most resistance, after all, she was a trained bodyguard for the princess, and she was a Sheikah…. She might be a thread to him, so he should act carefully… Surely, the eruption caused by the explosion would alert her that something wasn't right….and he needed the element of surprise….

He made up his mind, he was going to go after Impa after he had dealt with Darunia.

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Finishing off the Fire Sage was a piece of cake, and Link continued his merry way of death and destruction to find the Sage of Death. He would soon rearrange her title so that it would be more fitting…The Dead Sage….

She had been expecting him. Weapons drawn, deadly glint in her red eyes, the colour of blood, she stood before him.

"What happened to you Link? What happened to the little boy who was best friends with the Noble Princess Zelda?"

"He grew up Impa, and he's ready to repay you the pain you and your princess have caused him"

"If you're looking for a fight, so be it. But I won't be a pushover."

Almost faster then light, she reached Link and tried to jam her knife between his ribs. Barely fast enough, Link sidestepped and pushed her away. Her shear strength and agility amazed him. Yes, he had known that it wouldn't be easy to finish her off, but this wasn't what he had expected.

A smirk crossed his face. Finally a challenge.

Knowing that being defensive wouldn't do him any good, Link started his own series of attacks. A look of confusion crossed Impas face. She had seen him fight better in his days as the hero of time. Perhaps his inner darkness was clouding not only his ability to judge and act, but also his ability to fight?

She managed to inflict a few minor wounds on him, but nothing serious. And that's when it hit her. He was only playing with her.

"Enjoying our fight Impa?" He said with a smirk.

"Just you wait, I'll whip that smirk of your face Fairy boy"

That's what he had waited for, he had finally managed to anger the great impassive Impa. That mistake would be her down fall. Finally letting go of his façade, Link started attacking with a lot more power and way faster. He could see that Impa was having trouble keeping up with him.

Turning around fast, he knocked her to the ground and within seconds, he held her pinned to the ground.

"Don't worry, you'll see Zelda soon enough,"

And with that he ended the life of the last Sheikah, the great Impa, Sage of death.

_Only two to go…_

Only two? What about….?

_We'll let the fatso be…He won't pose a thread to us…_

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	8. Ending it?

_Sorry that I haven't updated in such a long time. I just recently read the fic through and the chapters don't look anything like how they showed up in my word document. Anyway, if someone is interested in the original documents, send an email to __ and I'll do my best to send them to you as soon as possible_

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A cold wind froze Link to his place, sitting right before Zora's river. It felt as if the goddesses themselves were weeping. The same cold feeling crept over Link's spine, temporary shielding him from the deity's overwhelming consciousness.

Staring at his reflection, the man he saw was a stranger to him. Dark tribal markings, made from fresh blood (not his own), hid his pale complexion. His hair was a rusty red colour, caked on blood covered his once golden hair. But it was his eyes that caught his glace.

Unfamiliar red eyes were staring at him. Nor the deity, nor Link possessed such eyes.

Sheikah eyes….

What had he done? He had allowed the deity to take control, to kill his friends, to kill the ones he loved. In a moment of utter despair he had willingly handed over control, hoping it would stop. Hoping that the bloodshed and pain, fear and death would leave him be if he gave into their demands. And now, he had just caused more of it.

Gripping his hair, he sand down to his knees. Using the somewhat bloody water from the fountain (he only briefly remembered killing the remaining Zora's who tried to kill him when he left Ruto's chamber), he whipped away the tribal markings.

That didn't have the effect he had hoped for. The memories were still there and so was his very object of fear. In fact, he was staring right at it. What the mighty hero, blessed by courage, feared the most, was what he had become, blinded by power, by hunger, by fear.

He knew that this temporary found control wouldn't last long, he could already feel the deity trying to seize it away from him. But he couldn't let him kill the remaining two (well three). He wouldn't let him kill Saria. He wouldn't let him hurt Zelda.

That's when a thought struck him. The only way to stop the deity…..

Was by committing suicide….

Time was running out, he would have to do it soon. If only he could tell everyone how sorry he was, that he had never meant for it to end this way.

But time was a luxury he no longer had. No longer did he have the power to life through three days for an eternity, heck he was even lucky if he had a few minutes left.

His right hand no longer did his biding, the deity was slowly winning control.

Drawing his already bloodstained sword with his left hand, he hoped that they would somehow find a way to understand.

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He hardly noticed the pain, he almost laughed at it. If he had known that dying was this easy, he would have done it a long time before. His vision blurred, and he couldn't help but laugh. The sound startled him. It didn't sound like him, it sounded like a wounded animal, it even sounded like Gannondorfs maniacal laughter when he met his doom.

_Heh, looks like the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree now does it?_

Before he passed out, he swore he heard horses approaching him.

But they wouldn't safe him, his bloody stench would keep them at bay…

He would safe them from the evil he had become, he would safe her, even if it literally meant it was the last thing he did

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_A/n :_

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_He would have been right if the horses weren't carrying a certain princess with some of her guards…_

_----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_I know, now what most of you were expecting, and to be honest, I can't really blame you._

_Anyway, at least now you know how Link ended up in that cell._

_Stay tuned, this isn't that last chapter (at least, I hope so)_

_~~Destiny's charm ~~_


	9. The darkest day of their lives

You….

Curse you…Zelda!

Curse you…Sages!!

Curse you…Link!

Someday…

When this seal is broken….

That is when I will exterminate your descendants!!

May the day of my return be the darkest day of your lives.

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Something was changing. His chains were shaking, as though he had yet again fruitlessly attempted to free himself from this seemingly endless nightmare. For months he had been feeling this way. It was as if something inevitable was heading his way. Ever so slowly, the chains, which bound him to the goddesses' forsaken land, were becoming as tainted as his own mind had once become.

Being locked in this place, for…could it be correct, 7 years, he had little else to do then either plot his escape and his so desired revenge, or muse at where he had gone wrong. After all he wouldn't have been here in the first place hadn't he messed up somewhere, now would he?

In his mind, it was crystal clear, though the largest part of his brain seemed to disagree. It didn't bother him anymore (even if it gave him severe headaches), he had long since gotten used to disagreeing with his own mind (even though he sometimes doubted whether it was really his at all). The part of his brain, which he liked to call his sane part thought that his coming of age had been his downfall. That part suspected his surrogate mothers, more commonly known as twinrova, to have altered his maturing rite and thus have altered his future.

At first, the changes didn't seem that bad at all, in fact, he had even loved it at first. Who, in their right mind, would have minded to be given powers which exceeded your very imagination? He sure hadn't at first. But as the changes became more eminent, he started harbouring an insatisfiable hunger for power and darkness, so overwhelming, that his mind simply lost control.

That part of his brain, the darker part, quickly seized control over his body , and even though reluctantly, his true (in his mind) conscience was shoved in the back of his mind, unable to exert any control whatsoever.

He couldn't do anything but watch helplessly as his quest for the triforce, what had started as an innocent curiosity in what could have meant the end of his peoples suffering, rapidly changed into a heated search to satisfy his ever growing hunger. The sane part of his brain thought that it would have been better for everyone, including himself, if he had been killed in his quest. That part of him often wished that he had had the courage to take his own life, in order to safe everyone from the hurt he had caused them.

The other part of his brain, the part which had embraced the offered darkness, had long since been a long cause ("at least he was a lost cause WITH power" that part smirked)

IT plainly said that the so called "sane" part was mental…

No he had made his biggest mistake when he had underestimated the brat…He should have finished him off when he had the chance. But no…The "sane" part just HAD to intervene at the last moment, reminding his demons that the source of infinite power had never been this near. Such a dirty trick to distract him from his purpose…

By the time he had come to finish what he had started, the boy was nowhere to be found.

…..

There it was again, the shaking…But was that…? He tried to move his right arm, and to his surprise, he managed to move it a bit. The chains holding him seemed weaker…

What was happening to him?

The chains once again shaked violently and again, they lost some of its original power…

It had to be…But the sages were holding him in his place, so the weakening chains could only mean…Yes !!

Even in his wildest dreams, he would never have dared to hope for this day to come. Were the sages slowly dying one by one?

He pulled his left arm towards himself, and to his surprise, the chain broke. With a patience long lost to him, he slowly freed himself from his former prison.

Soon….Soon would he have his revenge


	10. He's back and he's not alone

_Gerudo valley_

"Hey Nayla"

Nayla turned around, just in time to see her friend Kisota running forwards her, her long ebony hair whirling after her.

"Hey, what are you so excited about?" Nayla knew that Kisota was prone to overreact about everything, but lately, things had been boring, so secretly, she hoped that something excited would break the monotony.

"Me and Karima have been asked to bring everybody to the practice grounds" Kisota's whole face was lit up. "Do you think they're finally noticing how good I've become?"

Nayla didn't want to disappoint her friend by saying that that was very unlikely, that they just asked whoever was near at that time, so she just shrugged it off.

"Anyway, do you know what this "meeting" is about?" Nayla couldn't help but feel curious, after all, something was finally happening, and Kisota knew things that she didn't.

"Well no….they refused to tell me…But they did seem really happy?"

Wait…Alarm bells started running in Naylas head. Who could Kisota mean with they? After all, the only ones who had the authority to command everyone to come to the practice area would either have to be Nabooru, or her second in charge, Misaro. And frankly, no one had seen or heard anything from Nabooru in about two weeks. Nayla would never forget that day, after all, it's hard to forget about the day on which your home was set on fire. Nabooru had left for the temple only hours ago, to do some meditation, if Nayla remembered correctly.

Anyway, Kisota could have never been asked by a plur/

"Say Nayla, you wouldn't happen to know where Nabooru is, do you?" Nayla was roughly brought back to earth.

"I'm afraid I haven't, in fact, nobody has heard from her for two weeks…"

"Well, I have to go and find her anyway. They want her there as well, they specially asked me to bring her" Nayla would have to remember to drag Kisota back to earth someday, but now, the mystery was just too intriguing to lose her only source of information.

"Well then, let's go look for her together then"

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"What's the use? She's probably not even here..."

"But Nayla…." Kisota was trying to pull of her puppy dog face but Nayla wasn't going to let it get to her, this time…. "We've got to find here, I mean, they won't be pleased with me if I don't bring her…"

"Well that's something I've wanted to ask you. Who do you mean with they?"

Kisota's facial expression changed so quickly, it scared Nayla. It was as if all traces of happiness were erased by a holy piece of gum. What was up with her? How many times can someone change emotions in one minute? If she didn't know any better, Nayla would have thought that Kisota was PMSing…

"You'll see" was Kisota's response. Now this just unnerved Nayla. It was almost as if Kisota was acting like Nayla…

Suddenly, a shocked expression flashed over Kisota.

"Oh CRAP!!!" We're late!!! Oh how could I lose track of time for so long, and especially now? Why didn't you warn me?"

Kisota dragged her off to the practice grounds before Nayla had a change to tell her that she failed to tell her when the meeting was supposed to start.

From where they were walking, they could hear that said meeting had indeed already begun.

"Let's just sneak in the back ok? They probably even haven't noticed that we're missing".

And that's when Nayla saw something that made her blood turn into ice. In the middle of the practice grounds, surrounded by all her friends and family, stood they object she feared the most. Twin rova.

"I don't think this is a good idea" Nayla pulled for hand free from Kisota's grasp and she pulled both of them behind a crate, close enough to hear what this meeting was about, and far away to not be noticed.

"Fellow Gerudo, the day has come to end our misery. The day has come to take revenge on those that suppressed us for so long. The day has come to accept our true leader back.

Two weeks ago, the seal to the sacred land was broken and our leader managed to escape. The time has come for him to get back what's rightfully his. First of all, he's taking back his people"

From their hiding place, Nayla could hear that her friends didn't quite agree about being taken back by Gannondorf. Many remembered his reign of tyranny during the Dark Age, even if it hadn't actually taken place in this timeline. Suddenly, a large light flashed over the valley and everything became eerily quiet.

"From now on, you will be His servant, names are no longer required. You're only objection is to kill those that oppose Him. You will fight to defend him with all your might, at any time it may be required. No freedom of speech and acting on your own will be allowed. From now on, you're a collective, not an individual. From now on, you are His people."

A loud cheer erupted from the fast crowd gathered in the training grounds. Next to her, Nayla could feel Kisota shaking with fear.

"Nayla, what's happening? I'm scared" Kisota buried herself deep into Nayla's arms.

"I know Kisota, I know". Gently stroking Kisota's long ebony hair, she knew what had to be done.

"Get up Kisota, we're leaving." She pulled the reluctant maiden to her feet and quickly ran to the armoury, taking a pair of weapons for herself and a pair for Kisota with her.

"We have to warn the princess of what's going on….He's back and he's not alone"


	11. Chapter 11 decide for yourself

It was getting darker, twilight was barely lingering and the guards were preparing to shut the gate, making sure no unwelcome visitors could come at night, when Zen, a young guard, spotted a moving shadow, edging ever so nearer to the city. At first, he tried to ignore it, but whatever it was got closer and closer, and soon, it made him nervous. Grabbing a lantern, he made his way down onto the streets, told a fellow guardsmen what he was about to do, and left to find out what the shadow was. Monsters no longer plagued this land at night, and he had nothing to fear, yet he had this feeling, a feeling of foreboding, which made him extra cautious this night.

Right before he reached the shadow, it collapsed onto the ground. It wasn't too long until the first rays of his lantern hit whatever it was, and Zen nearly peed over himself once he released what exactly he was looking at. Two girls, hardly past their teens, were lying close to each other. From the way they were positioned, he could see that the one with the long brown hair had been pulling the one with the reddish hair along. Gashes and cuts littered both girl's body, and judging from the paleness of their faces, they had lost a huge amount of blood.

What on earth were wounded Gerudo doing so far from their dessert?

It didn't really matter right now. Zen was sure that he had to make haste, every second ticking away could mean the end of their lives. So he pulled his horn from his belt and blew harder than he had ever before, signalling the others that he needed assistance.

It was dark when the guards carried the girls to the castle, as quick as they could. Inside, doctors were present, and if they had any luck, so was Impa. Surely, she would know what to do.

Hours passed and night turned into day when Nayla awoke. The first rays of daylight stung her eyes and made her headache a lot worse. She tried to move her hand to shield her eyes, only to realise that she couldn't. Panic started to flood over her when she realised that she didn't recognise the room she was in either.

Her trashing must have started the nurse who was tending to Kisota, because she was there within a second, standing next to Nayla's bed, holding her down. "Relax dear, it's okay, you're in capable hands" The nurse kept muttering that as if it was a mantra, as if repeating it could make it true.

Nevertheless, Nayla calmed down a tad. No longer did she try to get away, no, in fact, when her memories hit her, she wanted to stay here, where ever she was. |There was no way that they could go back, not after what had happened.

"Uh…" Her voice sounded raspy and her throat was as dry as the dessert sand of her home.

The nurse handed her a cup of water and spoon-fed her some of it. "Don't push yourself honey, you're safe here" The water tasted funny, yet she couldn't really pinpoint what it was. It probably was nothing; everything was weird right now….

"We…" Her voice broke again. "Have…to tell …the princes….. He's back" Fatigue took over and she struggled to remain conscious, but it was getting hard every second. Then it hit her. The nurse probably put some sedatives into the water to calm her down…..

"No!!!" Nayla screamed with all her might… "No!!! I won't let you"

"WHAT"S THE MATTER OF THIS?" The voice sounded distant, yet it held so much authority that Nayla wished that she could look at the persons face.

"Nothing my lady, she just passed out from fatigue" the nurse tried to bribe the other person, tried to get her to leave.

"Se..da…tives.." She still managed to slur those words before sleep overcame her.

[

She never expected to wake up again, yet she did. More hours had come and passed, judging the light that now entered the room. A quick glance told her that the nurse was no where in sight, so who had been taking care of her?

As she glanced across the room, she noticed that Kisota was lying in the bed next her. She felt so guilty. She hadn't paid even a small thought to her from the moment she passed out into the fields, and she had known that her friend had been critically injured. Of course, it wasn't as if she didn't have a proper reason for it, but it still bothered her. Gerudo weren't raised to be individuals; they were part of the clan and were raised as one. Heavily sighting, she rolled over, attempting to get out of bed to correct her error. And that's when she noticed her. In the chair right across the room was a woman, tall and strong, with white hair making her look old while her face told a whole different story. Her bright red eyes twinkled in the ever darkening room, telling Nayla that who ever it was was still awake and alert.

"I don't know what you're here for, but whatever it was would have gotten you killed if I hadn't conveniently walked into the room right before it would have happened."

"wh..who are you?" Ever since she had been a child, people had told Nayla that her eyes made her stand out from the crowd. They had always been slightly redder, slightly brighter, and slightly more proud. They had been her most offsetting feature. In battle, she could nail an enemy down with a well placed stare, yet the woman before her was unaffected.

"I'm a friend, that's all you have to know right now. Are you able to stand?" the unknown lady observed her a couple of seconds before realisation hit her. "You're friend is doing fine, she's just asleep, nothing bad will happen to her if we leave right now. If we don't" The lady left reassuring "then I can't say the same about you".

Walking took a lot of her energy and it felt like ages before they reached their apparent destination. The hallways they passed where filled with so many precious things that Nayla was almost afraid to walk around. Everywhere she looked, she saw the royal insigne, the phoenix, and she now understood why Gannondorf wanted to have Hyrule castle so much.

Shaking her head, she decided that all these riches still weren't worth the blood shed, and so she continued on, hopefully to meet the princess.

The room they entered was far less beautiful and exquisite than the hallways had been, in fact, the walls were a simple white and the room only had some bare necessities in it. The woman with the white hair left her standing there, so Nayla assumed that this was some sort of waiting room. From the door to her left, Nayla could hair voices, hushed, sometimes screaming, and they were unlike any voices she had ever heard before. One was calm, like the quiet breeze on a summer day, while the other sounded more like a storm in autumn, like a wild animal crying out to the moon. The loneliness of the second voice touched her, it seemed so familiar.

Just as she was about to set herself on one of the chairs, the door to her left opened, revealing another room with three people in it. From what she could see, there were two women and one male. She hardly ever saw any men around in the fortress, but from what little experience she had, she could tell that the boy was extremely handsome. He had hair that resembled the golden sunrays and eyes so blue…so blue that she could have gotten lost in them if their loneliness hadn't shaken her from her trance. Small scars littered his face, providing him a ruthless handsomeness, showing that he was one worth his weight in this world. In the fortress, they would have described him as perfect breeding stock…

The woman standing next to him was even more beautiful, and in her eyes, so elegant and exotic. Violet eyes holding all the wisdom of the world pierced through her soul. For the first time in her live, Nayla felt uncertain. Both of the people in that room where so…foreign…so beyond her reach. They had this glow over them, setting them apart from everyone else, even from the weird lady with the blood red eyes and the snow white hair.

It was as if the goddesses had chosen these two themselves.

And then realisation hit her. She had been staring at the most important person, wait scratch that, the most important people of the country, if not the whole world. She had been caught staring at Princess Zelda, her mighty rules of Hyrule, bearer of wisdom, and her chosen hero, Link of the kokiri, bearer of courage. Clumsily, she fell to her knees in an awkward attempt to bow, but hands clothed in stainless white gloves pulled her up and placed her on the chair. Violet eyes never left her own.

"Please sit, you're in no condition to bow to anyone right now"

Nayla flushed. Being raised as a Gerudo, she was taught never to show any sign of weariness, and right now, she had shown hers in front of the rules of their mortal enemy, in front of the princess of Hyrule. But now, time had changed and she was no longer their mortal enemy. No in fact, Nayla hoped that she, and her hero, could save her once proud tribe. Tears cascaded down her cheeks. Oh, the humiliation…For her, for her people, for everyone…

In between sobs, she managed to stutter that he was back. The hero and the princess shared a glance, his intense and sorrowful, hers calm and fearful. She could tell that they disagreed on something, but she couldn't quite figure out what, so instead, she tried to gain control of her emotions and so she continued her story, shakily.

"Yesterday, we were told to come to the training grounds, to attend a meeting. As I was heading there, I met Kisota, who dragged me along to find Nabooru. From what she told me, Nabooru had been missing for a few days but they did want her to attend the meeting. I was kind of surprised that there was a meeting at all, since Nabooru was the only one with the power to call upon one, but we went to search for her anyway. But our attempt was fruitless, so we hurried back to the training ground, only to find that they had already started without us. Twin rova, they were there, holding a speech, informing us that He was back. So far, no one had noticed us, and we didn't quite like the way the meeting turned out so we hit behind a crate. A blinding flash pierced the sky, and all the Gerudo started to act so strange after that. It was as if they could no longer think for their selves. We knew that something was wrong, terribly wrong, so Kisota and I ran for the weapon chamber, fetched our weapons and tried to make our way to the outer gate. By then, they had already spotted us, and they started to chase us as if we were wild animals. We managed to evade most of their attacks while running toward Hyrule field, but they managed to hit Kisota somewhere during our run. I threw away our weapons and carried her on my back for a while, but two of them caught up with us."

Her voice broke and she once again busted into tears. She recalled the battle that happened after they had caught up with them, she recalled the faces of her friends as they died due her hands, and she recalled their screams as they died. She remembered it all.

Worry flashed over the princess' face and soon, the white haired woman escorted her back to her room. The rest of the story could be told another day, but right now, Nayla had to rest, leaving a disturbed princess and an angsty hero behind.


	12. Things don't look that grey anymore

Right after Impa escorted Nayla to her room, Princess Zelda sank to her knees, her façade of being calm and collected long forgotten. She had dreaded this news ever since the day she found Link again, bleeding on his own out in the fields. The moment she had heard about Ruto's demise, the moment she heard about the explosion in death mountain crater, the moment she had found Impa, barely alive, mouthing nonsense about how the hero of time had turned their back on them. She wouldn't belief it at first, it was just too horrible. She didn't want to believe it, and now she had to face the consequences. How on earth would Hyrule manage to defect Gannondorf again? Their hero, once strong and fierce, nothing more but a broken soul, could he find the courage again to face him? Or more important, could she find the courage to ask all that from him again?For the first time in her life, she didn't know what to do.

Just as she was almost giving into her despair, just as she almost let her tears free from their purple prison, a hand, colloused by the very burdens she had imposed on him, gentle took hold of her shoulder, and pulled her forward him. Embarressed, she tried to stop but motion had already started and tears soon fell free from her eyes.

She was supposed to be the strong one now, she couldn't ask all of this from him again. Not now.

"Shhhhs, it'll be okay, we'll think of something" Link gentle stroked her back as he held her close to him.

"How can you even say that?" Sudden anger filled her, and made her forgot about her tears, about her despair.

"Look at you, you're supposed to be our hero, and you're broken. You killed two people, sages even, there very people we needed to keep Gannondorf in his prison, and yet you say that everything is going to be alright?"

She pushed him away, anger blazing in her eyes. She was going to give him her opinion about this, right here, right now. But then she looked into his face, and saw the hurt and pain in his eyes. Ashamed, she looked at the ground, trying everything to avoid looking at him again.

"You're right…I'm in no condition to fight him…I…I…I'm sorry…"

"Don't say you're sorry…it's too late for that…"

"Well I'm sorry PRINCESS but how about you go through all I've went through and then see how you're doing? How about you save everyone in this GODESS FORGOTTEN LAND only to have them forget about all you've done for them? How would you feel if all your friends forget about you? How would you feel if the very people you save call you a monster?"

She pushed him. Hard. In his weakend state, he was thrown off balance and he fell against the wall. She held him there. He wasn't even able to free himself from her grip, so how on earth would he be able to defeat the king of evil? The one he had trouble with when he was at his peak?

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself, you're not the only one who suffered. How do you think I felt when I was told that my dad died when Gannondorf attacked our castle, that my dad died because I had some dreams and acted on them? How do you think I felt when I had to watch Hyrule go to hell because of an mistake I made? How do you think I felt when I watched you go through all of that, just because I made a bloody mistake? Take a look at yourself, right now, you're pathetic. How do you think I feel when I look at you, and realise I could have helped you? Should have helped you?"

She could feel him fighting her. Good, he had to light his fire to be able to lose his darkness.

At first, the struggling was weak, but now she had trouble keeping him down.

"You're pathetic, you know that right? Perhaps the people who called you a monster were right. You only think about yourself, you kill everything that opposes you, you act heartless. Just like a monster, that's what you are. Loving you was the biggest mistake of my life".

She was pushing it, she knew that. She didn't mean halve of the things she said, but she had to get him to fight, he had to show her that he was still able to feel emotions, other then the quiet calmness he had been showcasing the last couple of days. And that's when he broke his hold on her, and switched them around, holding her pressed against the wall. She could feel his body against her, his still strong muscles even if they hadn't been properly used in a few days, weeks even. She could feel his skin, his smell. The space between their faces was small enough that if she had wanted to kiss him, she could have.

A smirk appeared on his face, his wolf like eyes shining with something she didn't quite recognise. Purring lowly, he came even closer, so close that they're lips were almost touching.

"So you loved me huh?" He pressed his body against her, overwhelming her senses. He was too close, it was too much, she couldn't think straight anymore. Dropping her arms, he let his hands roam freely over her arms, up and down as if he was warming her. "I suppose there is no way to change that from a past tense to a present tense?"

He stepped back, leaving her frozen in her spot against the wall. He walked to his room, carefully eyeing Zelda as he walked. Deciding on a rather brave move, she whispered "No, it's too late for that" as she walked away. And within seconds, she was pinned against a wall again, her front pressed against the cold stones, her back against his chest , his lips against her neck. When she didn't object, nor shove him aside, he turned her around, once again standing face to face, and before she could even process what was happening, he pressed his lips against hers, keeping her in place against the wall.

Things didn't look that grey anymore now that she had him back. They would figure out a way, together.


	13. One down, one to go

It was that dream again, the one she had seen so many times. She silently watched as dark clouds billowed over the once peaceful lands of hyrule, she felt the sudden feeling of relief she had always felt when a ray of light, shot from out of the forest, suddenly parted the clouds and lit up the ground. She felt something she didn't dare to acknowledge when that very ray of light turned into an even more familiar figure.

Link

But something was wrong. How could she be having this dream again when the prophecy had already been fulfilled? They had already banished Gannondorf…

The light started to fade as her anxiety grew. Soon, darkness filled up everything, efficiently blocking her sight. Laughter filled her ears, the same sort of laughter Gannondorf had displayed during their last fight. She felt a hand touch her shoulder, and as she whirled around as fast as she could, she located the source of the laughter.

There were three of them. Two of them appeared to be hiding the third from her view, but for some unknown reason, she wouldn't let them. Using Din's fire, she casted away the darkness, only to let the fire drop from her hand.

She couldn't believe her eyes. Standing right in front of her wasn't one, but three Links. As she drew in closer, she noticed that they were and weren't Link. The two upfront had some visible flaws in their appearance. The first had a darker hair colour and his eyes were a blazing red. The second one had some tribal markings painted on his face and his piercing eyes appeared to be none seeing, yet watching her every move.

Unnerved, she rushed past the first two, reaching the third in three steps. Before her was Link, her Link, bathed in his own blood, scars littering his pale complexion, hands tightly gripping his sword. Before she could even comprehend what was going on, the other two moved in to attack. In a blink of an eye, Link had moved in front of her, shielding her from the blows with his own body. She watched as he fell, unable to stand any longer.

When all seemed blight, another familiar person came into view shielding both her and Link from their two enemies. Faintly, she recalled hearing the other person yell: "Run, take my son to safety. Redemption is mine!!"

Around her, she could see the scenery fade away and soon all she saw was darkness

"Zelda, wake up…" She could feel something, or someone shake her, and she reluctantly opened her eyes.

Standing right in front of her was one of the objects of her dream. Within an inch of her face was Link, wearing the same cloths he had worn yesterday with his hair still tousled. Instinctly, she reached out and moved her hand through his hair, pulling him closer in the process. And just as she was about to head off into Dreamland again, the door was opened, revealing a rather shocked and angry Impa.

Within seconds she was standing next to the couple, forcefully pulling them apart. Zelda's cheeks turned a bright red when she realised what it must have looked like to Impa, and she hung her head shamefully. Attempting to plead innocent would only work against her, she decided.

"Link!!!" Impa ranted "I don't care if you almost managed to kill me once, if I ever catch you with Zelda in that position again, I will castrate you, is that clear?"

The hero himself just stared at Impa, refusing to back down. Zelda could see his eyes twinkling, and an amazed smirk was plastered on his face. Balancing himself on one hip, he really looked like the old him again.

Suddenly it was quiet and Zelda realised her mistake a tad too late, for Impa had long since stopped lecturing Link and had turned her attention to the poor princess.

"You should get dressed my lady, for the meeting will start in less than an hour." Turning around, she grabbed Link's arm and forcefully escorted him out of the room, leaving Zelda to get dressed.

After getting dressed rather hurriedly, Zelda made her way down to the designated chamber. The guards opened the doors as she approached and soon she was greeted by many familiar faces. Sitting right beside the door was the petite frame of the forest sage, her green hair immediately drawing Zelda's attention to her. Ever so cheerfully, Zelda was greeted with a warm smile and a respectful bow. Next to the forest sage, appearing rather out of place was the rock hard body of Darunia. As the sage of fire, and sworn brother to the hero of time, he had taken the seat to Link's right.

As she walked to her seat, the empty spaces were rather evident. Impa was seated between two empty seats, namely the water sage, and the spirit sage. Memories of Nabooru and Ruto threatened to overwhelm the princess of Destiny, and it took everything she had to walk to her seat serenely and apparently unfazed.

"Honourable sages, today we've gathered to discuss a rather painful subject. We have lost two of our dear friends, two of our dear colleges, two people who will be greatly missed if not already. But today, we've gathered to discuss an even more urgent topic."

Taking some time to collect herself, she looked into the faces of those who had gathered.

"I'm sorry to be confirming this, but he has returned. His chains were broken the very moment we lost one of our members, and if our sources are correct, he had already reclaimed the Gerudo".

She shifted her attention to Impa. "Impa, if you please, could you bring Nayla here? As a witness, her account is more useful then mine."

It took Impa only seconds to get Nayla into the room, so Zelda secretly suspected that the Sheikah had foreseen her move and had brought the young Gerudo with her just in case. She listened as Nayla repeated the same story she had told Link and herself yesterday. She watched as the other sages displayed distressed signs and heavy breathings.

"Thank you Nayla for your courage to tell us your account. Would you please take my seat? I'm sure we have some questions for you".

Even though she had been pretty much been occupied by Link last night, Zelda had still thought of a plan. The only thing they could possibly do was to seal Gannondorf again, and for that, they needed 7 sages, and that posed a problem.

"In order to seal the King of Evil, we need the combined forces of the seven Sages and the Hero of time. We have to fill the spaces; it's the only way to save Hyrule"

"Your Majesty? " Nayla had risen once again. "Do I have permission to speak?"

"I may not be of noble blood, nor was I blessed with magic by the goddesses, but I do know how to fix at least one part of your problem. The spirit sage has long been passed on from student to teacher and each teacher had elected it's own student, by putting the tribe through multiple tests. Those tests could only be completed with our so called spirit guides, but as the ages got more violent, and less spirit sages reached the age on which they chose their student, a new way of qualification was created."

Looking around the room to make sure she still had everyone's attention, she continued, now directly facing Link.

"As the hero and the princess know, the spirit temple is located deep in the heart of a dessert. The only way to reach said temple is by using magic, or the help of a spirit guide. You see, they only reveal themselves to those worthy. So, in order to locate the new spirit sage, you'd have to travel to the desert, a very dangerous mission since my tribe is now being controlled by the king of Evil."

"So, if I get what you're saying, we have to go to Gerudo desert, dump all the Gerudo in the desert and see which one makes it out of there alive?" Darunia interrupted Nayla. "Shouldn't pose that much of a trouble if I bring the whole tribe…"

"Well no, you see, for there is another option…" Opening her sash, she removed a large heavy looking bag, and pulled a large orange coin like thingy from it.

"Kisota secured this when we fled from our tribe, in fact, it's the main reason why she is in the condition she is right now. Naturally they spotted us, and we had to run for dear life… Moving on, this coin, when near the other sages should pinpoint the location of the sage it belongs to, thus revealing the new spirit sage…"'

At that, Saria stood from her seat, took the coin from Nayla and placed it in the centre of the room. "Well, there is only one way to find out if it's true" she added happily.

Doubtfully, all of the remaining sages drew near to the circle of the room, making sure to stand in the correct pattern designed by the goddesses themselves. Soon, a large orange like beam filled the room, blinding almost everyone, and in the blink of an eye, the coin had risen and was heading straight for Nayla, who tried to catch it, only to be knocked down by the force of the coin.

"Guess that's one down, one to go" Link said


	14. Rutela

"Whose brilliant idea was it to bring you?"

Slightly annoyed, Nayla whipped her pony tail around, clearly trying to hit the person who was unfortunate enough to evoke her anger.

"We're going to get arrested the moment we enter the damn room…You can't just leisurely walk back in there a few months after you killed their heir to the throne….I can already see king Zora's face when he gets his fishy paws on you…I would hate to be you when that happens"

Their small group had been arguing for what seemed a couple of hours, while in reality, they had only started fighting for about half an hour. Not that this drew anymore attention to them than they already had though, seeing as the group was a rather ragtag one. People don't often see a Kokiri, a Gerudo, a Goron and a rather murderous looking Hylian travelling together, none the less see a Gerudo pick a fight with a male Hylian (they're more accustomed to seeing them seduce them)

"Without me, you can't even enter the damn room, seeing as none of you know the royal family's song….and Darunia here sure as hell can't swim to the bottom of Lake Hylia without drowning first…I'll just wait outside"

"Well" Saria finally spoke up, for the first time today "I think you should come. This is the perfect time to apologise for what you have done. You ARE sorry right?"

Unfortunately enough (or fortunately for Link) Link's answer was lost as the group reached the waterfall which guarded the entrance to Zora's Hall. However, the rushing sound of the waterfall was soon replaced by the haunting yet elegant tones of what insiders would call Zelda's lullaby. Just as the last time faded into nothingness, the waterfall split apart, revealing a hole just big enough for Darunia to fit through.

"Uh…Brother? Remind me why I am here again..." The sight and most importantly, the sight of all that water had unnerved the otherwise so brave Goron. After all, it wasn't unheard off for a Goron to drown in large bodies of water.

"Same reason I'm here" was the gruff response "to find the new water Sage"

Nayla sighted annoyed and tried share a look of understanding with the ever so bubbly forest Sage. "He sure is Mr. Sunshine*, isn't he? Brighten up kid or do I have to light a candle for you?"

Rather oblivious to what was happening behind her, Saria kept on walking.

"He wasn't always like …Hey…Stop it, you're going to get us caught".

Oh well, so much for being oblivious.

During the conversation, the group had entered Zora's Hall as stealthily as one could with a 6 foot 5 Goron following you. All had gone well until the hero of time had decided to "screw" being stealthy and had tackled the newly appointed spirit Sage. Needless to say, this caused quite a bit of a ruckus as both rolled on as a tangled mass of limbs, their armours alerting anyone within a miles range when they hit the stones. Within seconds, the group found itself surrounded by vicious, hungrily looking Zora's, armed to their teeth.

Saria smacked her forehead, hard, and quickly separated the hero and Sage with amazing strength, especially for one of her built and species.

"Look what you two" She pulled on both Link's and Nayla's ears "have gotten us into"

"So we meet again…Decided to turn yourself AND your followers in, did you? What a pleasant surprise"

Right in the middle of the army currently surrounding them stood a rather lonely looking Zora, standing out because of his share height difference.

"I fly solo…" Link muttered.

"SHUT UP!!! You came here, months ago, marched right into my daughter's chamber, literately ripped her heart out and now you have the courage to merrily show your face you?! Why you little…"

Clearly not intimidated by the army ready to rip him apart, Link leisurely walked over to the previous speaker, eyes as wide as saucers and he barely avoided tripping over his own mouth, which was dangling just inches above the ground.

"Wahwahwah" Was all Link could mutter, quite incoherently as well "You're King Zora? No way, I thought you had your ass glued to that throne"

"Well… I did use to be severely overweight" the now rather handsomely (for Zora standards) King moved around, clearly embarrassed by the whole ordeal and his former lack of self-control "I lost a lot of weight after Ruto's death…But that's not the point, you killed her! You did this to me "

Huffing rather undignified, Link walked back to the rest of the group. "Seems like I've done nothing wrong then…Let's go guys, standing here all day won't help us find the new water Sage."

As they turned to leave, the guards closest to Link tried to grab hold of his arms, yet the Hero still had some of his former glory in him, and he easily knocked both of them to the ground, efficiently clearing the way for his comrades.

"It's no use, you won't find him or her"

A voice, sounding as clear as Lake Hylia, and as beautiful and soft as an ocean breeze broke free from the crowd which had gathered to watch the uprising.

"He or she hasn't hatched yet"

"That's correct, poor Ruto's eggs haven't hatched yet" Seemingly lost in memory, the king continued "She was nicely following the restraining order sent by Her Royal Highness, even laid her first batch of eggs" The king trailed on, his voice sounding somewhat proud.

"With all due respect, your majesty" Saria walked back to where the king was standing, and swiftly dropped in what appeared to be a formal bow, which made her green cloths and hair stand out even more between all the blue. "We were sent by Her Royal Highness, Princess Zelda, to indentify and appoint the new water Sage. Your dispute with Link will have to be settled another day."

"You will subject that piece of scum to me, or I won't cooperate."

Determination radiated from Saria as she confronted the hard headed king.

"We don't have the time for this your majesty (read you big stupid fish). He's back and unless you enjoyed being frozen for seven years, you will give us your full cooperation."

"Can't I just..."

"NO!!!"

"Sheez, there wasn't a need to shout, I'm standing right here…"

Nayla turned to Link, amazed as to why the hero was smiling. "Why aren't you scared out of your mind? I would have never guessed that that little girl could be so scary" He just smiled and faced her. "She raised me, I first handily experienced what invoking her anger will cost you"

Nayla turned an unnatural shade of white as the mental images flooded her mind.

"I'd rather not find out I think…"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After some more persuading, and after giving him a couple of blows to the head, Saria finally got the King to take them to the throne room, saving them from the prying eyes and ears. Without the king occupying the throne, the room seemed strangely empty, as if something vital was missing.

Right next to the throne was a small shrine which held the Zora Sapphire, its pure rays lighting the room with an unnatural glow.

"It has shone this way ever since the temple has starting acting strange, which was around the time of Her Royal Highnesses death"

It seemed that the same voice which had spoken up from the crowd had followed them to the throne room, and the group finally had a chance to connect a face to it.

Lulu….

Link immediately recognized her, even though he hadn't really met her in the dimension.

"My name is Rutela, and His Highness appointed me as the caretaker of the princess'eggs…"

Sorrow seemed to spread over the young Zora's face, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

"I'm sorry, but we can't help you right now" King Zora walked over to Rutela, having noticed her despair. "Without an heir there won't be a Sage"

Everyone turned quiet as the room turned a cold cold blue. A large crack could be heard, and before anyone could do something about it, the pedestal cracked, releasing the Zora Sapphire.

Just as it was about to hit the ground and shatter, Link managed to grab hold of it.

"What's going on? Why is the temperature dropping?"

"It's the temple"

Before anyone could stop her, Rutela spoke up again.

"I'm going to go there, now. Something is amiss. You're welcome to join me, but don't try to stop me"

"I like your attitude lass, I think I might as well join you, I heard that pure Hylia water does wonders for your skin."

"Hey wait, you're not going to go without me." Saria brushed past Link and Darunia, trying to catch up with Nayla and Rutela. Link just shrugged his shoulders and started to leave as well when Darunia grabbed his hand.

"No way we're entering a water temple… They're nuts, NUTS I TELL YOU!!! Darunia isn't going"

"Aww come on you big wuzzie, it's not like you have really have a choice" Link started to pull a very reluctant Goron with him, which was quite a feet on itself.

"How about I treat you to a nice pair of rocks when we come back? I'll even play Saria's song for you"

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_a/n :_

_Believe it or not, but I had a lot of trouble writing the last part of this chapter. I deprived myself of sleep for the better part of last night because inspiration hit me like a train, and I just couldn't let it go._

* _If you truly need a laugh, listen to umbrella by vanilla sky while reading Nayla's comment about Link. It'll make it so much more enjoyable ^^_

_I hope you guys enjoyed this one, and I'm sorry for neglecting this for a while_

_~~destiny's charm~~_


	15. Girl power

Somehow the grand white marble walls seemed to have a life of their own. It seemed as if they were doing whatever they could to make the rooms seem smaller, resulting in a claustrophobic feeling that made Zelda feel rather uneasy. So they, the princess and her white haired guardian, had decided to take a walk through the ever green gardens of Hyrule castle.

Normally, the lush green gardens and its endless supply of beautiful flowers could easily take away ones worries, but now they seemed to do little to relieve Zelda's uneasiness. There was something in the air, something she couldn't quite put her finger on, a feeling, a thread. Something was going to happen, something bad.

Just as they turned to leave, an unknown force collided with Zelda's back, nearly knocking the delicate princess of her footing.

"M-m-m-my lady"

After turning around as fast as she could while wearing the ceremonial robes her father made her wear, Zelda saw something that made her blood go cold. In front of her, on his knees doubled over in pain, was a young knight of about Link's age and build. She vaguely remembered being present when this particular knight was knighted; it had only been a month or two.

She vaguely remembered comparing the knight's looks to Link's (although good looking, the former couldn't even compare if the second would show up in the contest after rolling through mud, blood and whatever not).

A blush crept up her face, it was not a time for improper thoughts.

The knight was breathing hard, as if he had run away to save his life, which he probably had, judging from the look of his injuries. If they weren't treated, they might end up rendering his run useless.

"Mortal wounds show lack of skin" Impa muttered, recalling her own not too long ago.

So Zelda, being the kind hearted princess she was, or wanted to be, she kneeled down next to the nameless knight, to see whether or not she could still save this man from his imminent death.

"T-t-t-temple of time….under…attack….everyone…dead…"

The boy then curled, well tried to but his thick armour wouldn't let him, into a tight ball, making it impossible for Zelda to heal him, but if he thought that he would get away with dying that easy, then he sure was wrong.

With the help of a magic spell, she had him flat on his back in mere seconds, binding him with magic so ancient he swore he felt the goddesses sing to him. It stopped him from struggling bodily, but that didn't mean that his resolve was broken.

Just as Zelda was about to heal the knight, she caught sight of his eyes, and the look of them shocked her.

Dead, there wasn't another word to describe them. Dark empty poles of death were staring at her.

"W-w-without them, my life m-m-means nothing…"

So she pulled him close to her chest and held him there for some minutes, perhaps even hours, until she felt his tortured body relax.

The goddesses had freed his battered mind from its prison.

Sometimes, she knew, the best thing that could happen was death, and a tiny part of her mind wondered if it wasn't better if Link too had died….

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After ordering a random servant, whose face Zelda couldn't recall at the end of the day, to care for the fallen soldier, they quickly set out for the temple of time.

Castle town's market was deserted. Doors were locked, windows closed, people safely hidden under their covers.

A feeling which Zelda hadn't felt for over seven years tugged at the edge of her mind, and it slowly sunk its ice claws in her heart.

Suddenly she wasn't so sure if going to the temple was such a good idea…

Each step she took seemed heavier then the one she took before. A large portion of her mind screamed at her to get the hell out of there, to find Link and hide behind him again, but it was her heart and her shame that stopped her from doing that. She would prove him that she too could be brave.

One glance at the temple of time immediately told her something was off. Instead of the hope the building usually radiated, it now gave of this evil presence, tainting the building's once pure purpose. Hiking up her skirts, Zelda continued to run up the steps, and after catching her breath, the princess and her Sheikah guardian entered the recently desecrated temple.

Once inside, the walls seemed to close in on her, the sight before her eyes was just too horrible to witness. Right beside the holy dais, on which the spiritual stones once had resided, was a pile of human body parts, angry ripped from their bodies. To the left of the days was a pile, equally as big, and the princess quickly indentified the bodies.

Whatever it was didn't have mercy with the unarmed priests of the temple.

A slight movement then caught her eyes, directing her to the dais. Sitting on it was the splitting image of Link, but Zelda could tell that there was something wrong. Instead of cerulean blue, this Link's eyes were ruby red, and his hair was raven black instead of its normal golden hue. But the worst part was the aura this person was emitting.

She had felt that aura with only one other person, though this one was less strong, and that was when she first laid her eyes on Gannondorf. Pure evil emitted from the both of them.

"A…Look what we have here? If it isn't the damsel in distress that usually cowers behind the hero of time."

The creature (Zelda refused to call him a human) then glanced around, as if trying to look past Zelda and Impa.

"He's not here if that's what you're looking for"

The creature then jumped from the daisy, easily regained its footing and casually strode over till he was about three feet away from Zelda.

"Oh well, might as well make this fun then….This way, I can have my way with you."

Before either of them (Zelda and Impa) had the time to react, the creature dashed ahead, pulling his sword out, ready to end the life of the princess of destiny.

Just as his sword was about to hit the princess, the dark being felt a light breeze pass him by, but he was none the less surprised when his sword hit nothing but air. He barely had the time to regain his footing when the princess kicked him in his shin, sending a wave of magic running through his body.

Staggering backwards as fast as he could, the dark being kept a short distance between him and his prey.

Much to his anger, the princess just got up again, ever so slowly, and then proceeded to dust of imaginary dust off her dress.

"Is that all you've got?"

The creature snarled at that.

"Then it'll be an easy victory"


	16. Hello, my old friend

Suddenly, as if some Imaginary puppeteer pulled a switch, the creature dropped his stance, carefully storing his weapon somewhere where it couldn't hurt him, or someone else. It pulled a black gloved hand through his hair, apparently trying to gain whatever calm it once possessed.

When he spoke, his emotional strain was clearly audible, making its low voice tremble with the effort.

"Now there, there princess, is this how royalty treats messengers of bad luck now a days? I expected more of you…"

The being then brought his hand to his hip, self assured as if he had all the right in the world to be offended, as if it hadn't just killed many innocent citizens trust under Zelda's care.

"Is **THIS** how you treat royalty? Is **THIS **how you treat innocent people? Slaughtering one's citizens normally doesn't invoke a warm welcome and I wonder why…"

Apparently Zelda was just as quick in wits as she was in combat, and within seconds the fight had turned into one fought by words instead of arms.

"They were useless" the creature countered "I did you a favour by disposing them…And," he seemed to add as an afterthought "enjoy your title while it's still yours to enjoy. Soon you'll be nothing more then the unfortunate people who died here today, dying for a useless cause."

The creature must have noticed the deadly glint in Zelda's eyes for he hastily got on with his business.

"Lord Gannondorf sent me with a message."

It then purposely sought out Zelda's eyes, holding hers with his as if trying to force her to obey whatever would follow.

"I suggest you'd also check the walls if you value your life. Now. I hope you would be so kind to excuse me, for my job here is done and right now, I have more pressing issues to take care off."

And without another glance or sound or clue, it vanished. The shadows lingering in the temple just seemed to swallow it, leaving nothing but a small tattered note in its place.

Baffled, the princess and her guardian stood still for a long time, not moving, not speaking. The eerie quietness continued to feed on Zelda's nerves as she finally brought herself to look at the once sacred white walls. Angry red marks tainted the holy stones, showing a story written in blood.

Yes, Zelda was aware that the creature had used her soldiers' blood to write whatever it had written, but that couldn't put tone down her amazement.

Written on the stones were ancient words long forgotten by anyone but the royal family. Whatever was here today sure did know its ancient Hylian, for it hadn't made a single mistake in what she counted were well over 100.000 words. Secretly, she couldn't help but wonder how long it had taken for the creature to finish the gruesome job.

And why would he leave a note when he had already written down everything she could possibly need to know on the temple walls?

Deeply in thought, she didn't notice Impa picking up the tattered note and thus was startled when said Sheikah laid down her hand on Zelda's shoulder.

"According to this note, we have 21 days to surrender to the King of Darkness before he's taking this country by force."

Neither of them said another word as Zelda continued to read the secrets hidden by the ancient language, and after what seemed to be little short from an hour she whispered:

"Whoever it was that wrote this had knowledge given by the goddesses…"

Impa's eyes widened at this, but it went unnoticed since the great warrior was standing behind the only one who could have noticed it.

"You mean…that you did not recognise the creature?" Impa's mind absently wondered back to the last time she had seen the creature's counterpart, which was when she threw said hero out of the princess 'room.

At this Zelda turned, for the question had caught her unguarded.

"What was there to recognise?" She asked the stoic warrior.

"Never mind, you will find out in your own time, for now it's not important"

"Good…For now, we should tell the others of Gannondorf message."

On the way back to the castle, the silent Sheikah couldn't help but wonder if love truly made on blind.

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"Water, water, water, that's all I ever see around here! And you know what?! I'm sick and tired of it! Look what it's doing to my hair!"

Our ragtag group consisting of an ex-hero, a dessert woman tired of water, a manly Goron shaking with fear for the possibility to drown in the unknown depths of the water temple, a rather annoyed forest sage and their ever so calm guide had indeed entered the water temple….About 8 hours ago….

"Shut up, you live in a dessert for Din's sake, you should cry tears of joy whenever you're near water" Apparently Darunia just couldn't take more, and granted the place he was in, everyone would feel the same.

Link just sighted and sat down, tired of all the hard work he had been doing, seeing as the others gave him little or no assistance. Soon however he was joined by Rutela, who sat down next to him with grace only a Zora could muster.

"Are they always like this?" She asked him before bringing her attention back to the rather amusing sight of Nayla trying to push Darunia into the water, with little success.

"We're there soon…I…just need a rest…"

Link was tired of the temple as well. Tired of the water, tired of the endless doors he needed to unlock, but mostly tired by the memories of this place. It was here that he had fought his shadow, the product of his own dark thoughts.

It was here that he first noticed how strong his darkness could be. He almost died fighting it, and secretly, he wondered if he was lucky enough to fight it again and to pull through a second time.

The voice is his head was strong today and it was giving him a headache. The pitiful fight of his so called comrades didn't really help that much to improve his mental state as well. Tired he just watched until Saria finally had enough and blow up like a thunderstorm in the middle of summer.

An impressive sight to see, yet not one you would want to be a part of.

Link stood again, he wasn't going to get any rest this way. It would be best to continue now that they still had enough strength to stand on their own two feet.

His companions soon noticed his absence and they joined him right when he opened one of the last doors.

The place was exactly the way he remembered it. A small layer of water pooled around the walls and the floor, giving the place the image of a mirror. Which was exactly what it was in Link's messed up mind.

They weren't alone though.

Standing in the middle of the room was none other then his worst memory, the very proof of his weakness.

Dark Link

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_A/N : _

_I'm sorry that it took so long to update this story. My finals start tomorrow, so I haven't really had any time for anything but studying. I did want to get something done, so I sacrificed some of my precious time to write this down (not that it would have left me alone if I didn't but that's a story for another time)_

_Anyway, keep your fingers crossed because I do really want to graduate :D_

_~~ destiny's charm ~~_


	17. Whenever you need me, just call me

_Whenever you need me, I'll be there, just call and I__'ll come, I promise._

_I'm not that naïve anymore Link, I'm not some pathetic princess who needs to have her ass saved all the time, at least not anymore. _

_I'm not implying that you are, I'm just making a promise to you._

_Well don't make any promises you can't keep….._

_Why must you always push me away? I know what I've done, and it hurts. I've hurt so many people, including you, but can't you see what you're doing? What it's doing to me? That kind of behaviour is what pushed me over the edge not that long ago, and I don't know if I can take it from you…._

_I'm sorry…_

_So am I …for everything… I shouldn't have come here tonight…_

_I wanted you to as well, so it's okay…_

_But what will everyone think? Heh their dear princess is locking herself into a room at midnight with a former madmen slash hero… I can just hear the maids gossiping…_

_I don't care, and what you and I think is most important, n'est ce pas?_

_I'm scared…to slip, to break, to hurt you, especially now, when you need me to be strong… I'll fight him, them, even if it's the last thing that I'll do…But I want you to run, to go somewhere safe…You can't be here when I break, when he wins…_

_I'm staying and you know it…_

_I'm counting on it…_

_Don't leave… not tonight…_

_I won't… I promise._

_----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

"Hello my old friend"

Something was off, Link could sense it, though he wasn't quite sure if it was caused by the sudden drop of temperature or by the way his duple ganger had addressed him.

As things were right now, he was betting his money on both and it made him feel uneasy.

Oh well, best to take care of what's in front of you first than to worry about something as of yet unknown

"Let's just cut this I know you since I'm you crap and let's get to the point. Ganondorf sent you here to fight me, so draw your weapon and show me your best"

"…" Dark Link shifted uneasy, uncomfortably.

"Damn, this guy's a cutie, too bad that we're going to have to kick your ass." Not in the least embarrassed, Nayla winked at Dark Link before she drew her scimitars and moved into position behind Link.

"This…is going to be awkward…"

"So we're going to just stand here all day? Come on cutie, get your ass moving, who knows, I might actually spare your life."

Another wink.

"Uh yeah, right, about that…" Dark Link raised his hand behind his neck as if he was going to scratch it, only to stop said movement when he became aware of what he was doing.

"Nayla, you can lower your weapons, he's not going to fight us. "

Slightly confused, but more likely stubborn, Nayla held her stance for a tad longer before she reluctantly did as Link told her. She refused to show him that he had any sort of authority over her, so she directed her attention towards the male still standing in the middle of the room.

"Why are you here if you're not going to fight us?"

"…I'm entitled to my own opinion…."

He kicked his sword towards Nayla

"Now I'm armless. This should ease the uneasiness a bit,"

Blue met red in a silent stare down, one that both parties refused to lose, yet it was blue, surprisingly, who looked away.

"Why are you doing this? "

It wasn't really a question, it was more like a statement. A statement everyone else in the room seemed to miss.

"I care too much about this world, even if all I'm ever going to be to anyone here is just a ghost of something I'm not. When people see me, they see you, and I think that it's time that I start to act on that expectation. Besides, I've never been a good guy before, you've got to try everything at least once before you die, don't you think?"

Blue and red, blond and black, supposedly good and bad, yet they understood each other, and for now that was enough.

Under loud protest from both Nayla as from Saria, Link handed Dark Link his sword back.

"You're going to need this"

And without another word, Link left the room, leaving a rather stunned party of misfits behind.

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"We need more time"

Those four words might have meant barely anything if they were spoken at another time, in another place. Yet now, they carried the fate of the country.

It wasn't just a statement, something someone noticed after carefully examination something; no it was a heartfelt plea. One that went unheard by those that had given the Hylians their long ears.

Her vision began to blur as Zelda and Impa hurriedly made their way back to the castle. She needed time on her own, time to think about the next step, time to think about what she had to do, but time was a luxury she could afford right now.

So many people were killed today, so many people died because of her…

It weighted rather heavy on the princess's heart, not once before had she been the cause of the deaths of so many people. Sure, she had been in contact with death, she had even killed with her bare hands, but the responsibility for the loss of so many lives still hurt beyond relief.

Engrossed in her musing, Zelda didn't even notice the odd looks and stares they receiving when they entered castle ground. Of course, one could hardly expect to go unnoticed if you're the sole heir to the throne and you're walking around with a blank look on your face and your dress is covered with soil and blood. Soon, Impa had to resort to her sheikah training to keep the worried castle dwellers from stopping their princess dead in her tracks, but surprisingly, they managed to reach the princess's private quarters without being hindered.

"So what are we going to do now Impa? We have only three weeks left before Gannon comes to take everything away from me, so we better spend our time useful."

"I think you're forgetting about something Princess. Right now, there isn't a we as in we. Right now, it's just me, Link, and the sages your hero failed to kill. You're in no condition to fight."

Zelda soon took up the rather annoying habit of passing. Too many things were troubling her mind; she just couldn't sit still any longer.

"I don't know what you're talking about Impa, you've just seen me fight mere hours ago and objectively speaking, I totally kicked that creature's butt."

"You perfectly well know what I'm talking about Zelda, or are you still in denial? You're carrying Hyrule's future, we simply cannot risk losing you or it. If link was here, he would agree."

Zelda's blank face spooked the hell out of Impa, usually it didn't mean that much good if she didn't reply with some sort of sharp comment within three seconds. Her nervous fidgeting didn't really help to ease her nerves either.

"Wait….Did you…Did you lose it?"

Zelda slowly shook her head at her former nanny.

"I haven't told him yet…"

"We need to get you to safety"

"We need to give the man who died a proper burial"

"We don't have the time, I'm moving you to Kakariko town, it's time for you to visit an old friend."

"How much time do I have?"

"Till tonight, we're leaving a little past midnight, you'd better be ready"

The rest of the day came and went by pretty fast. All the commotion of the day was surely taking its toll on Zelda. Not only had she fought something she hadn't seen before, she had seen what it had done to the people that were just trying to protect her, that were just doing their job. Poor, innocent people died because of her and guilt weighted heavy on her heart.

But she didn't have the time to stop and think about it. No, there was just too much she had to get done. After arriving at the castle, one of the first things she had to do was to inform the families of those who died today. Families came and went, their expressions changing from hopeful (perhaps they were thinking about a promotion of some sort) to devastation. Watching the change broke Zelda apart. Each family that left chipped of a piece of her soul, only to take it with them as they left. Needless to say, at the end of the day Zelda felt like a shattered mirror, empty, broken, with only a few shards left to do their job,

But she wasn't done yet, no. Since those man died to safe their princess, their deaths should be honoured, and this implied a ceremonial burial. One that she would have to arrange.

But she just couldn't spare the time for it, so with a fleeting feeling of guilt, she just left the papers and sheets concerning their burials untouched on her desk. There would come a time when she would give those men what they deserved, but right now, Hyrule and her safety came first.

Swiftly, without attracting attention to herself, Zelda packed only necessities to take with her. Elaborate as her room was, on the run, none of those items would come in handy. After donning a black cape, she was done.

Now she would have to wait till midnight….And then they would run.

Unfortunately for her, she never got the chance. Right before 10 o' clock, the castle was attacked. Due to the events earlier today, the castle guards were on high alert, so they quickly noticed the perpetrators. Sadly enough, they never stood a chance.

Battle noises soon woke our dear princess. Glancing around, she noticed the time. It was ten already. Somewhere along the line she must have fallen asleep. Still drowsy, she reached for one of the hidden knifes she had packed.

Thank the goddesses that Impa had been hell bend on training her in the ways of the Sheikah. It really paid of.

As stealthy as she could manage carrying her supplies, Zelda ran through the hallways, running toward the commotion. Smoke soon drifted her way.

The castle was burning. Flames licked past the walls, hungry trying to devour all they could. Smoke quickly filled what hadn't been filled by the flames, making it hard to breathe. Soon, Zelda lost her ability to see. Desperately fighting a losing battle, she tried to get out of the castle, but the lack of oxygen made her drowsy beyond compare.

" Link…."

_Just call and I__'ll come, I promise._

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_A/n__ I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Wow, I've been saying that a lot lately. It's just, this summer has been a busy one for me. I finally fulfilled one of my childhood wishes. I actually went on a holiday to Japan, all by myself. It's strange, after staying there, it feels as if I understand certain parts of games better than before. It might just be my head messing with me though._

_I also started dating someone. Right now, we've been together for 6 weeks and things have been amazing. You can blame him for taking up any time I had left ( I was working two jobs as well, I didn't have that much left ;p)_

_I do plan to continue this story, in fact, I've been working on this chapter for quite a while. But everything I wrote down just seemed wrong. I kind of still feel that way. Just bear with me, hopefully, things will get better._

_~~destiny's charm~~ _


	18. The pale deadly light

The pale blue light provided by the temple walls gave our small band of misfits a rather uneasy feeling. Something was wrong, horribly wrong, they could feel it. The fact that the floor under them would randomly move as if something was shaking the temple did nothing to ease the feeling. Nor the fact that water was ever so slowly running over the walls. Whatever it was that was attacking the temple knew that they were there and was doing everything it could to stop them from reaching its core, even if it meant that it would have to destroy the temple.

Time was getting precious, if they don't find what was causing this soon it could very well mean the end of them.

Without a warning, a huge quake shook our friends off their balance, ripping part of the ceiling down.

Yup, time was getting precious all right.

"The temple, it's screaming…"

Somewhere during their journey under Lake Hylia, something had happened to the Zora representative. Her eyes had clouded over, making them similar to the water of Termina bay. She no longer seemed aware of her companions, nor to the possible dangers that threatened her life. On many occasions, this resulted in one of the others pushing her out of harms way, using their own bodies to shield her from harm. And about a half hour ago, or at least what seemed like a half hour ago, she started giving of this pale blue light, which actually was quite handy seeing as the temple itself was getting darker by the minute.

Suddenly, Rutela walked over to what seemed like a random wall and with a screeching sound, the wall made way to reveal a passage.

"That was quite random" The creature of the dark, listening to the name Dark, opened his mouth for the first time since he had joined them.

"What are we waiting for? I'm not going to carry Darunia if he faints due to his fear of drowning, something which could quite possibly happen if we are going to just stand here and waist or time." Clearly, the ever impatient Nayla was getting tired of their journey through the damp temple.

"Be prepared. We don't know what's behind this passage. Be on your guard and don't expect me to safe you when harm comes your way." Being around Dark had done nothing to improve Link's mood. Then again, who would be cheerful when the living proof of your darkest thoughts, your deepest regrets, was walking right beside you, acting as if that was the most normal thing which could possibly happen.

"At least you stopped using mono phrases."

If looks could kill, Nayla would have died more times today than she bothered to keep track off. Enraging the hero of time just made her feel so happy, for reasons she didn't quite understand. Perhaps it was the fact that when he got angry, he actually showed emotion, something she at first thought he was incapable of showing. Whatever had happened to that kid had had some serious effect on him, for the worst. His aura sent waves of cold over her spine, the ghosts of his past so obvious yet so untouchable, it made her feel completely helpless. Being around him when he was like that was energy consuming, so she preferred to enrage Link. Even at the risk of getting killed.

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"Show yourself"

The room was dark, moist and rather spooky. The only light to guide their way was the pool in the centre of the room, which gave of a faint blue light.

The same blue light that seemed to follow Rutela everywhere.

A sudden splash which resulted in everyone getting wet broke the tension.

"Um guys….we have a problem…Rutela just threw herself in that pool over there, and I don't think that that's a good sign."

"Darunia ain't going down that pool, I've had more than my fair share of water for the day. I'll stay here and watch the ex-"

Midsentence, he was interrupted by a second splash, the one caused when Link dived into the pool, head on.

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"_Think of me as you burn in hell__"_ _He then kicked her right below her chin, forcing her on her back. He couldn't help but smile sadistically when he located her heart, and removed it within a few seconds._

He had killed Ruto in his insanity. He could still see, and feel her blue blood on his hands. Whatever had made Rutela jump down this lake, he was going to make it stop. He wouldn't fail another Water Sage (something he had been calling her inside his mind) again.

Even if it meant diving into danger head on.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Damnit Link, I'm supposed to be the irrational one" And soon another splash filled the damp room.

"Is he even supposed to let the water splash? I mean, technically, he's a shadow right?" After seeing the weird looks she was receiving from Saria and Darunia, she decided that the others did not know that little detail about Dark. "What are you looking at me for? I'm not going to follow them to their deaths"

"It's best if we wait here and keep the exit secured I think. And don't try to small talk with me, the lack of trees in here is doing nothing to improve my mood.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Water soon made its way into his nose and his eyes. He had forgotten to pull on his Zora tunic before he dived after Rutela and he had soon started regret his moment of irrationality. Luckily for him, he could see a source of light drawing closer, which meant that he was getting close to the surface.

"Holy shit, that's not the surface" (everyone but a Zora would have heard "mmmm mmm!! Mmm mmm mm mmmmmm!!!!)

Within moments of seeing the creature and muttering his curses, he felt something wrap around his torso and soon, he felt his body leave the comfort of the water and within seconds his body contacted with the solid wall.

"Fuck, I thought I killed you years ago".

He could deal with this; he had dealt with it before. But something was off, something was wrong.

"Holy shit, whatever the fuck that is got hold of Rutela!"

Leave it to Dark to point of the obvious, wait, obvious? How could he have missed that?

"How do we kill this thing? Come on, don't give me that look, you've cleared this temple before after you've defeated me again". Midsentence, Dark had noticed the blank/angry look Link was currently directing at him.

"Well last time I had a hookshot and I would use it to grab its core and hack away at it"

"Well let's get going them, huh?"

"I'm afraid we have two problems. One, said hookshot currently isn't in my possession anymore. Two, it's using Rutela as a human shield. If we had to attack its core, we'll hit her first."

"Fuck"

"Your words, not mine. And I suggest you get mov- oops…too late"

Dark was suddenly tossed to the other side of the room, hitting the wall just inches away from the spikes.

"I'm sorry, Morpha tends to try and kill you…"

As Morpha moved to grab Dark again, Link noticed something when Morpha was about to attack. In order to try and grab hold of Dark, Morpha temporarily lost focus of Rutela, moving her to a less guarded part of his tentacle.

"Dark, jump in the water, I need you to act as bait."

"Hell no, how about you act as the bait and I'll do whatever you've planned?"

"If you don't do as I say now, that thing is going to kill you and I'll just sit here and watch it as it tears away at your body, so how about that?"

Needless to say, it didn't much more convincing in order to get Dark in the pool.

Morpha reacted just as Link had expected. Overjoyed that one of his prays had actually entered it's territory, it completely lost its focus on Rutela, and it's focus on the rest of the room. As carefully as he could, Link moved to the edge of the pool, waiting for his change to jump the creature. If only it stopped moving…

_Link…_

Zelda…something was wrong. No longer waiting for his change, Link jumped into the water and much to his luck, Dark had anticipated his move and guided Morpha closer to Link. Within seconds, Link had grabbed hold of Rutela, pushed her outside of morpha and grabbed hold of morpha's core.

"Finish it Dark!!!"

Holding it took much of Link's strength since it was continuously sending small electrical shocks through his body, and currently Link was as soaked as one could be.

Within minutes, a shrill shriek filled the room, signalling Morpha's death.

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_A/N; I'm sorry, I'll add Zelda's part another time, Right now, I'm just really busy with school and such, seeing as basically, I should be studying right now. Don't expect an update soon __though; it might take as long as three to four weeks. Anyway, I'm sorry for leaving this story alone for as long as I have._

_~~Destiny's charm~~_


	19. Breaking the habit

And within a split second he was gone, leaving only the ghost of a song in his wake.

"_Link..."_

She had to hold on, she just had. If he lost her, he wouldn't know what he would do. He'd probably go berserk all over again. Running as fast as he could, Link reached the borders of the castle ground within seconds, before the mere sight caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

It was burning, the very sign of Hyrule's prosperity.

Hyrule castle was burning.

Deep down, he knew that she was in there, that she couldn't possibly have escaped the castle in time, but his mind just refused to believe it, so he started running as if his life, not hers depended on it. No, he ran as if her life depended on it, because he cherished hers and didn't care about his. And he would die if he lost her, he was sure of it.

The voice in his head tried to reason with him, but he just blocked it out. He simply didn't have the time to stop. Soon, his lungs burned because of the lack of oxygen and his muscles ached. After all, who would get thrown to wall and not feel it the next day?

Yet he didn't feel it, he only felt fear. All consuming fear. The hero of time, the bearer of courage had never been more afraid.

He was going to lose her, and if he was, he wasn't going to survive the hurt.

_I want you to run, to go somewhere safe…_

Why oh why couldn't she just have listened to him, just this once?

Guards were yelling at him to get away, they were trying to block his way, but he wouldn't have it. How could they act that way when Zelda, his Zelda, their princess, was in there? After he drew his sword, never slowing down his pace, they finally left him alone.

Driven by fear so absolute, so complete, he threw down door after door, ran up staircase after staircase and ran down hall after hall way. He no longer could see a damn thing, but he knew the way to her chambers by heart.

His body was screaming at him to stop, that it really did need oxygen once in a while. And just when he had had enough, he felt her presence. With his last strength he swung her limb body over his shoulder, nearing falling down by exhaustion. It may seem like a seemingly useless thought, but right before he swung his arms to the left and trusted farore's wind in the air, he couldn't help but think that Zelda hadn't always been this heavy…

Only the flames witnessed what really happened that day.

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"Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again. Do you hear me?"

He tried to open his eyes, but they seemed way too heavy for him to lift.

"It's no use, he's still unconscious."

He tried to hide from the voices, they seemed way too loud and his ears and head hurt.

"He's moving"

Suddenly, he was pulled up into a sitting position. He knew that he didn't like that, so he tried to bat hands who were keeping him up away, but whoever it was that was holding him was too strong for him. Something hard and cold was pressed against his lips. The object also seemed rather wet.

"Here, drink something"

Like a sick child, he let the voices hold him up and feed him some water. The liquid felt cold and soothing in his sore throat. He wanted more; they were giving him not nearly enough to quench the thirst he hadn't known he had. Using a great deal of his strength, he grabbed hold of the glass and tipped it over, which of course in his state resulted into a serious couching fit.

"Greedy little fellow, aren't you?"

"You do know Nayla, that once he wakes up, he's going to kick your ass?"

"He's going to kick my butt you say? In his condition? He's not even fit enough to kick your butt, let alone mine."

Slowly, ever so slowly, Link opened his eyes. Though his sight was still blurry, seeing was better than not seeing. As far as he was concerned, he was in a room, with people who seemed familiar, who seemed to care for him. His warrior instinct instantly relaxed, leaving Link subject to his much needed rest.

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_Flames were blocking every possible exit, and smoke filled his nose and rendered his eyes useless. He had to find her, he just had. But everywhere he looked, she wasn't there._

"_So you've come to save the princess? How amusing…"_

_A tall shadow was all he could see of the voice's origin. The flames, the smoke and his brain were probably just playing a trick on him._

_Again._

"_Did you even come to save the princess? Or did you come to save your whore? Because that's what she'll be if you side with me, and me alone"_

"Take that back! I'm make you take that back!"

And suddenly his body contacted something hard and cold.

"Fuck…"

A sudden sound started him even more and when someone wrapped his or her arms around him, he freaked. Suddenly the room seemed at least 15 degrees warmer.

"Relax, you're save from the fire, no one is going to hurt you"

And suddenly, he could see the faces of two women. Saria, and Nayla. In one split second, all of the events of the previous day flashed before his eyes, and he felt the same terror he had felt when he found Zelda's body all over again.

"Zelda, how is she? Is she….?" Hopeful as he was, he was suddenly very aware of the arms wrapped around him.

"I'm fine, you dolt. Do you really think you could rid of me that easily?"

He wasn't thinking, he knew he wasn't thinking, and before his mind/manners/sense of duty kicked in, he turned around, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

"Don't ever do that to me again, you promise?"

"Funny, I said the same thing just seconds ago." Wrapped in his feelings as he was, he had failed to notice Dark's entry. Soon, his arms were around both Link and Zelda, squeezing them as tightly as he could.

"One moment, we were gang beating poor old Morpha, and one second later, you're gone, leaving this really cheesy song in my head. Rutela and I searched the room for at least an hour."

"Rutela?"

"You know, cute blue zora chick, about a head smaller than us, who guided us in the temple, who we saved from some water turned bad, who became the new Water Sage just minutes after you vanished without a trace."

"How is she?"

"Good considering the events of the last 24 hours."

"Um…" Zelda nervously broke the tense silence "Could I… Have…A moment with Link? Alone?"

"Yeah, we won't get in the way of your kissy kiss moment, will we Dark? I think it's time for the spar I promised you. Be prepared to have your ass kicked."

"I was going to take a bath anyway"

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"You kept your promise"

After everyone had left, Zelda had given Link the room to move back into his bed again.

"Were you surprised?"

"Well kind of. I mean, lately, you haven't been one to keep them"

"I'm trying to break the habit"

Midsentence, Link pulled Zelda closer. It felt so good to have her against him, again. He could still feel the terror he had felt when he thought he had lost her.

"You know, I'm not going to let you out of my sight again."

"You don't have to, I'm not going anywhere".

And while all seemed dark and bleach, their love for one another gave them the hope and courage to face another day.

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_A/__N; wow, I actually wrote both chapters today. I'm on a roll: D_

_~~destiny's charm~~_


	20. Sharing a drink they call loneliness

Sitting around here, doing nothing other than waiting for the next day wasn't something Dark Link enjoyed, though everyone else seemed to be just fine with it. He had tried sitting in the living room, had tried to get to know the others, but it always felt as if he hit a wall with all his attempts. Most of the occupants of the room couldn't see that there was more to him than just an evil creature created from their friend's darkest thoughts.

He couldn't really blame them though, he eerily resembled the guy, mirrored him. Where his skin had a healthy tan, his was as pale as the moon. His hair was black as the night, while the hero's, THEIR hero, resembled the rays of the sun. But the worst part was that whenever he took the time to look at his appearance, his red eyes would always upset him. There was something not right about them, yet he couldn't put his finger on it.

He was just an empty shell of something he could never be, and being around the people close to the hero only made matters worse.

So he decided to take a walk and let his mind wonder. Perhaps some fresh air would do him good. Soon, his aimlessly wandering brought him past the bedrooms. The hallway was deadly silent, if he could only ignore the sound of someone crying.

_Wait…Someone crying?_

He had forced the door open en invaded the room before he even stopped to think.

_What if they don't want me? I'm probably the last person any of them wants to be comforted by…_

"Nayla?"

The mighty, fierce, Spirit Sage, child of the dessert, was sitting on her bed, back turned to the door. After a few awkward minutes, the sound continued that had drawn him to the room in the first place.

It scared him, it honestly did. He had never seen anyone in any state other than mad, pissed of, or basically normal. People weren't supposed to cry and be sad; they were supposed to kick your ass for intruding on their privacy.

In his whole life (which wasn't as long as his body might show) he had only seen the small tad bits of Link's life in which he had been angry, hurt, confused or deadset angry. He had only seen the worst side of life, yet he was completely unfamiliar with this side of the human emotion spectrum.

Not really knowing what to do about this situation, or what he should do with himself, he sat down next to Nayla, draping an arm around her shoulders in the progress. But apparently, that only made the crying worse.

"Damn it woman, get a grip on yourself and tell me what's wrong"

"Y-you're a-a jerk, you know that?"

Finally, she responded in Hylian, a language he could actually understand. Woman were such strange creatures he pondered, letting their emotions take control over them like that and then wailing out stuff that didn't really make sense, yet they surely expected you to understand them.

Which seriously made him question why he enjoyed being in their presence, at all.

Glancing down, he noticed that Nayla had stopped shaking, thus his mind concluded, she had stopped crying. How could he have missed such a vital thing?

Suddenly, he was thrown off balance, and then hit by a pillow, quite hard.

_They're all mad… I don't know why that keeps __surprising me._

"Now that you've stopped sniffing, you can finally tell me what's wrong."

Even though the room they were in was very dark, he could feel her eyes staring into his, as if she was trying to read his mind. Apparently satisfied with what she had seen, Nayla turned around a bit, moving so she could look at him without breaking her neck.

"The castle..." she whispered. "It burned down to the ground, didn't it?"

_Why wasn't she just getting to the point? What was he, her best female friend or something? It sure did feel that way, the way they were talking here, in her room, all alone…_

_All Alone…_

She hadn't expected an answer; she was just confirming the facts for herself. That much he knew.

"The day Gannondorf came back…I wasn't alone… Out of the blue, a meeting was called for, and on my way, I bumped into Kisota…a friend of mine…"

He hadn't heard this part of the story, heck he didn't even know why the feisty brown haired Gerudo was here, replacing Nabooro. So naturally, his interest was peaked.

"She wasn't like the other Gerudo's, she was so bouncy, so full of life…We went looking for Nabooro, for no one had seen her for over two weeks, and by the times we decided to call it quits, and attend the meeting, it had already started. Self-conscious as she was about her tardiness being noticed by her superiors, Kisota forced me to watch the meeting, hidden behind some crates conveniently placed a little while behind the meeting area. She saved me from becoming a mindless Gannondorf follower, and what have I done to repay here?"

She had started sniffing half way through her story, and by the time she came to the most important part, tears were running over her cheeks like raindrops from the sky and she was shaking uncontrollably.

"She's dead, thanks to me. I left her at Zelda's castle, hurt, all by herself, so I could wander about and save the world with you guys, while I should have stayed to protect her."

She soon calmed after that. Perhaps all she had needed was someone she could yell at, someone she could be mean to. Or perhaps she needed someone, who like her, was all alone.

Long after their "talk" had ended, they enjoyed each other's company, sharing a drink they call loneliness.

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"We're heading for Termina. Today."

After enjoying the rest of the night, and part of the next morning sleeping, Zelda had gathered everyone in the main room.

_Termina…Memories of temples, falling moons, laughing masks and lastly deep all consuming sadness filed his mind._

He hadn't been there since he had buried the mask, and he surely hadn't planned going there any time before his death. But even with all that in his head, he could see the logic of that decision.

"Termina, as our close neighbour, will surely lend us aid to help and conquer the evil called know that if they refuse, they will soon fall after Hyrule has fallen. His thirst for power won't be quenched until he owns all there is in this world."

That and they owned him, big time. And he would use that fact against them.

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After they packed what little belongings they had with them, after fetching the amount of horses they needed for the journey, and after saying goodbye to those that weren't coming with them, they finally took off to Termina, the land of the falling moon.

Their group wasn't nearly as big as it was just moments ago. Darunia hadn't been able to find a horse that could have possible carried him all the way to Termina, nor had Malon been very keen on lending him on. Horses and Gorons didn't mix, according to her.

Rutela had simply refused to come with them. First of all, she would only slow them down, seeing as she needed water every once in while, and finding the amounts she needed would cost them a lot of time. Secondly, she hadn't really asked for any of this. She was only the caretaker of Ruto's eggs, not a hero. But most importantly, those eggs needed her. She was the only Zora ,of those that recently laid fresh batches of eggs that had lost hers. Only she could take care of Ruto's eggs now they no longer had their mom to look after them.

Despite being a sage, Saria still couldn't wander away from the Forest for any longer than three days. The week travel alone would surely mean her death, so everybody agreed (everybody but she) on the fact that she wasn't going to accompany them.

And Impa? She was being Impa, taking care of those in Castle town that needed her now the castle had burned down.

So that left Nayla, Dark, Zelda and Link to finish the all important task. None of them were really that comfortable being around each other and each had their own reasons.

Nayla simply didn't know how to feel after Kisota, the only link to her tribe, had died in the fire which had consumed Zelda's home. Deep down, she blamed the princess for Kisota's death. If her security had been any better, the castle would have never been set ablaze and Kisota would still be there to meet her once she got back. But most importantly, she resented Zelda because she had survived the fire, and Kisota hadn't.

She was angry at Link for the same reasons. If he managed to save Zelda, would it have been that much harder to save Kisota as well? She highly doubted it.

Zelda felt uncomfortable around Link, basically because she had failed to tell him her secret when she had the chance. It was his right to know, she knew that, but why has everything to be so damn hard?

Dark received side glanced by both Link and Zelda. He knew that it had to be strange for Zelda, seeing Link, but not really seeing Link whenever she looked at him. He also could see why Link gave him the side glances. It must hurt when the very embodiment of all your darkest thoughts is riding right next to you.

It was Nayla who troubled him though. After their night in her room, he simply didn't know how to act around her anymore. He didn't know what she expected of him, and he highly doubted he ever would find out.

Needless to say, the journey to Termina wasn't one of the merrier ones.

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He could feel it, with every step Epona took; he was getting closer to the mask. Normally it shouldn't have bothered him that much, but over time, it took more and more out of him to keep in control of the voice in his head. He could feel the mask calling out to him, screaming at him to release it once again.

He didn't have a clue how long he would last this time. He just wanted to run away, as fast as he could, but he knew that he had to stay, for her, for the world. He could only hope that he was still sane (as sane as possible) when they needed him most. Until then, he would fight the mask.

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_A/n; I should be studying, I know I should. But I just had to get this thing out of my head, it was driving me nuts. Can you believe that this took me nearly two hours? I doubt it seems this way..oh well…I'm not really looking for personal fame or anything, but it would be really nice to turn the computer on , log in into my email account and see that someone took the time to review this. I know that I'm getting enough hits, but the lack of reviews makes me really self-conscious. Anyway, I'm sorry for the rant, I didn't want to waste your time._

_~~destiny's charm~~_


End file.
